10 Years Later

Amplatzer Device

It's hard to believe this year/month marks 10 years since I had my heart surgery. I had my 10 year check-up this afternoon and everything looks good. My heart is still going strong and the Amplatzer Device is still in place and doing its job. For those of you who may not know my story, in June 2003 I had heart surgery to fix an Atrial Septal defect (ASD) AKA a hole between two chambers in my heart. I found out about the hole thanks to my Primary Care Doctor. It was my first check-up with him, a required sports physical to play volleyball. During my physical he heard a murmur which I never knew about. The murmur led to more tests and consultations, which eventually lead to repairing the ASD. The crazy thing about the Amplatzer device is that it's a relatively knew device - doctors have been using the device less than 50 years. However, the awesome thing is doctors were able to fix my whole without cracking my ribs or doing anything invasive. The device gets as small as a pencil lead. It's put through a vein in the leg and snaked up to the heart where it is put in place. One side of the mess sits up against one side of the heart wall. The second side of mess expands on the other and bam!, the hole is filled. (Originally they thought my hole was the size of a dime, once inside it was about the size of a nickel.)

For the first time I got to see the device working while the nurse took my ECHO. Normally I don't pay much attention; they do their thing and I watch TV, but this nurse took time out to point out the device on the screen, which is now covered a little with tissue.

It's amazing the things people come up with and are able execute when it comes to medicine. I will always be grateful to my Primary Care Doctor for finding the murmur and my doctor who performed my surgery.

Compliment Gone Bad

It's no secret Drew and I spend time apart, but we never go a day without talking on the phone. And, occasionally there are text messages in between. Texts are easy ways we let each other know we are thinking of the other. At some point in our relationship (I don't know when it started) Drew randomly sent me a text that said, "you look pretty today". Of course, he had no idea what I looked like, but it was a sweet thought and it has continued to randomly pop up on my phone screen over the last few years. We usually have fun with it and it turns into a big joke between us. After working out and teaching on Friday I grabbed my things to leave and found "You look nice today!" on my phone. At the time I was a hot mess - literally - from sweating all morning, but it definitely made me smile. I found out later that another Soldier, one of Drew's friends, heard what Drew wrote and decided to send one to his wife.... Unfortunately, she did not smile when she read it. Their conversation wasn't as humorous/playful.
Soldier: You look nice today!
Wife: Who was that for?
Solider: You
Wife: WTF. Why the h*ll would you write that?
The Soldier then had to CALL his wife and smooth everything out, explaining that he got the idea from Drew and it wasn't meant for anyone else - just her. Drew and I, of course, got a huge kick out of it. The poor guy was just trying to send a compliment to his wife, letting her know he was thinking of her, and she was not buying it. Needless to say he will never do that again. He even commented while I was talking to Drew that he will never make that mistake again. I suppose it just goes to show that every couple is different.

Sadly, I think that is the highlight from my weekend. I did spend some time with our neighbors on Saturday and a new family moved into the home behind us. I've heard through the grape vine that the family has a 10 and 14 year old. Honestly, I didn't know the former family too well. They did have a Great Dane, Fenway, who would get all wound up when Lexi came outside. They would stare and growl at each other from their sides of the fence. Fenway is a lot older and larger than Lexi. He even knocked part of the fence down a couple of times from jumping up on to it so much.

The weekend wrapped up with a dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday. Kevin couldn't make it, but it was still nice having the four of us together. I have a feeling down the road it's going to get even harder trying to get everyone together. Matt just moved into his own house, Kevin has his own place and I/we have our own. I hope we continue to find time to get together every now and then and not use an excuse that someone is too far, out of the way, etc. Family is too important not to make time for one another.

I'm hoping this week will be a productive one. I have not been able to get as much done over the last few days as I would have like.

Men In My Life

I feel very lucky to have four very important guys in my life; my husband, dad, and brothers. While I love my brothers, this post will center more around my dad and Drew. I might be a few days behind (even more today since I started this days ago and fell asleep typing), but Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful father! I feel so blessed and lucky to grow up and learn from such a hard working man. He's taught me a lot over the last 27 years and I know I can ask him for his help or advice whenever I need it. Every Fathers Day my dad's family holds a picnic at a nearby park. I unfortunately had to sit this year's out due to allergies. They came on out of nowhere and are still driving me crazy! I taught this morning and my voice kept cracking because it's so dry and irritated. At least I was able to sleep a little bit better last night.

I can't say for certain, but I think my allergies were heightened following my trip up north for Drew's promotion. Drew finally had his promotion to Commander. I am so proud of him for being promoted to the Commander of Bravo Battery. Drew was in Bravo, as the Executive Officer (XO), when he was deployed so I think it has a soft place in his heart. I've learned over the last couple of weeks that it's very rare for an XO to become a Commander of the same battery due to respect issues. Higher ups feel that a former XO of a battery won't receive respect as a Commander. I think it tells a lot about Drew's relationship with other Soldiers that he is taking Command of the same Battery he was an XO. It's going to be a lot of extra work and responsibility for him, but I know he will do an amazing job and handle the role with pride!

As you may recall, Drew was originally going to take Command last month, but due to various paperwork reasons, etc. it was pushed back to this month. Well, I had planned ahead and ordered a special cake for him when I ordered our anniversary cake. I told one of the Majors who broke the news to Drew and me about the change in date that he owed me a cake. I even took him in a piece of the cake I ordered to indicate just how good of a cake he owed me. While I don't have a picture of it he delivered! He picked up a Reece Cup ice cream cake to celebrate. The poor guy called dozens of shops near Camp Perry trying to find a bakery that had a gluten free cake I could enjoy! Not only was I able to enjoy the ice cream cake he brought, but I was also presented with a bouquet of beautiful roses. It's the Army's way of thanking wives/significant others for their continued support.

Overall it was a wonderful trip - well worth the drive. I am so glad I was able to take part in this exciting chapter of Drew's career!

Queen Bee Lands

10-15,000 bees landed in our yard Saturday! Yes, I did mean to write thousands!
I unfortunately was not around to witness the phenomenon of the honeybees, but Drew handled it with flying bees colors! I was taking my last real estate class up when he sent me a text telling me we had bees. I think he eventually said there were probably hundreds. I, on the other hand, imagined 20 or so buzzing around a bush. In that case, when he said he called a bee keeper I thought he was being a bit extreme. Not to mention I wondered how he even thought to call a bee keeper, much less get a hold of one. Then, these pictures started showing up on my phone:

Holy cow! I practically gasped out loud in class! These pictures don't even do it justice. I saw some other pictures on his phone that he didn't send me which are even more clear and astonishing. The whole situation was crazy. As I mentioned, I originally thought he was over exaggerating and when he asked what to do I told him to bomb the bees with some spray we had from last summer. Thank heavens he was smarter than that and didn't bomb the bees. The bees would have been pi$$ed off and probably stung him to death. Instead, the bee keeper came and shook them off the tree into the box and took them home in his station wagon. Yes, he took them home in his car. 

The whole situation has turned into an educational experience. The bee keeper explained it like this... the queen bee happened to land on our branch so ALL 10-15,000 bees followed her. This happens between 10am and 2pm. Drew noticed the bees around 1:30. While the queen waits, a few 'scout' bees fly around looking for the bee's permanent home. That's what was happening in our backyard. The bees were waiting to hear where the permanent home was going to be, which is where they would start making honey. We, of course, did/do not want that permanent home in our backyard so close to our house and Lexi. According to some of the information we found, honeybees love to live in houses. We had no qualms about giving up our swarm of bees to the bee keeper, especially since it only takes the bees 24 to 48 hours to find their home. We needed to act fast. I am happy to say that the bee keeper was able to show up Saturday and take the bees away. Of course, it took me until yesterday (Monday) to actually cut the grass in the back yard near that tree. Even after we had some rain I was still nervous to go near the tree. I made no effort to actually walk under that tree to get the grass like I had done in the past.
The funny thing about the whole situation is that if it were the other way around, Drew would never have believed me either if I said there were hundreds of bees outside. He would have responded the exact same way, telling me to just spray them. I just can't say that I would have been thoughtful enough (ok "smart enough") to call a bee keeper. I would have probably freaked out and locked myself inside.
Thankfully, no one got hurt/stung in any of the process above.

Dream Machine

Normally, I don't dream. Or, I don't remember if I dreamt, but over the last week and a half I have been dreaming like crazy! And, not all of my dreams have been good ones. A number of them have been nightmares. I blame it on the new mattress topper we just got. Drew had one in Iraq and loved it. Unfortunately, he left it in Iraq. It was way too big to stuff in his bags of necessities and all of his other stuff had to be packed and shipped months before leaving. Of course, he choose to hold onto it and enjoy it until the last day and then leave it for the next guy. Flash forward to the present and he's been having a lot of back issues - I think it's from standing so much at Amazon. We finally gave in and order the same mattress topper in the size to fit our current bed. I wasn't too sure about it at first because I'm paranoid about the spine and shoulders and sinking too much or creating bad posture with a super padded mattress. I like a little extra support. At this point I am sold on the comfort of the topper, but boy have I had some strange and memorable/scary dreams! The first few nights I slept on it I had horrible nightmares of people attacking and or trying to kill me. Not cool! Normally I don't remember my dreams at all, if I have one. Drew thinks I am sleeping more soundly/deeper which could be the case. Last weekend I actually woke in a panic - which I have never done before! The nightmares have since calmed, but I am still having odd dreams. The good news is Drew's back seems to be feeling better and he doesn't have the urge to go sleep on the couch or somewhere else.

Speaking of sleeping, Lexi has been cracking us up lately. We use to close the doors to all the rooms whenever we left the house, but over the last two months or so I've been leaving the bedroom door open. She doesn't do anything other than sleep when we're gone and she likes laying next to the bed, or resting her head on the extra pillows on the floor. Lately though, we'll be watching TV in the family room and Lexi will just get up, walk upstairs and lay down. It's as though she's telling us, "Bed time. It's too loud and bright down here, I'm going up to sleep. See you later." Days when I teach at 6am she watches me get ready, she'll go out to go potty, then run right back upstairs to lay down. I usually find her there when I get home.