What will the new year, 2011, bring me? What will it bring to my loved ones and friends surrounding me? What will it bring for my wonderful husband and his side of the family?
I got to thinking about all of this today seeing as how it's the last day of 2010. Needless to say, I've done some self reflecting today and this is what I've come up with.
Last new years eve, I was in Billings with Fiance' who lived off of north 24th street in an awful bachelor pad. lol. I made the shrimp dip that my mom always makes ( and as i type, my mom is making it for my father ). We then walked up to our favorite Bar and celebrated up there. After midnight I told him "Brad, this is the year we are getting married!!" and we both smiled.
This new years eve, after midnight I will get to whisper to my close friend Nicole "Nicole, my husband comes home this year!!" There might be a few tears coming down my face as I whisper it to her, but they will be tears of happiness. Yes, I don't get to spend new years with my husband, but I am so happy that I get to spend it with Nicole! She has been such a great friend to me that I don't know what I would do without her. I love you Nicole!!
2010 has brought me many different challenges. I got married to Bradley Thomas Ireland and it was the best day I've ever had. We had a truly beautiful wedding. I also moved to a different state with him. I had to make new friends, which wasn't hard once I got a few good ones. It showed me who stuck by me through Brad being gone on different training's and who really understood what was going on in my new married life. 2010 has made me realize how hard life actually is when you are on your own. In September of Brad left to go and do his duty to serve his country, which left me in Billings to fend for myself. It was september 13th that I met Debbie Bailey and Ashley Wiser, two truly amazing women who I don't know if I could make it through this deployment without them. That night, Tracy Hagan (brown) took me out to dinner and grocery shopping to get my mind off of Brad leaving. He wasn't gone yet, but the fact that the process had started was gut wrenching.
Regardless of how awful it was to have Brad leave, I am so thankful for the family that I married into. They care about us so much and I am continually amazed by how involved they want to be in our life. They've checked in on me from time to time and even set up a trip to new york for Brad and I spend his 4 day pass together. Our last chance to spend quality time together. They didn't have to do it, but they care about us.
So what do I hope 2011 will bring me? Well I know a few things it will bring. It will bring home my husband, safe and with all 10 fingers and 10 toes. It will bring small Finn into the world in May. It will see families grow. it will see friendships blossom and mature. It will see my 'little sister' turn 21. it will see a few weddings I'm sure. Brad and I will get to celebrate our one year anniversary . . even though we aren't together for it. My dear friend Nicole's little boy will turn 1 this year. That's pretty exciting.
We will have to see what it does bring, but I know that it will only bring happiness and personal growth.
Happy New Year!! :-)
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Seattle Trip
In the time that I have been here in Seattle, I haven't done as much as I thought I would be doing. In fact, I had two days off at the beginning of the week where I was in my PJ's till 3pm. Pretty amazing if you ask me. I arrived on a Thursday evening and went straight to see my grandmother in the hospital. She had fallen a few days before and broken her hip.
Friday morning I woke up early and drove down to the Olympia area and visited my nephew Jadon. It was his first birthday that we were celebrating. I was representing Team Ireland ( the youngest Irelands ) with my mom as well. My mom and I then made a quick stop at the air force base for a few things and drove back up north.
My own brother, Alan, shares the birthday with jadon. Actually, the other way around. They share the same birthday day. anyway, we went out to dinner that night to 13 coins across from the airport. I had never been in there, nor will I ever go in again unless someone else is paying. Holy smokes that place is pricey. We had a good time however.
Saturday I went and spend some quality time with my grandmother. It was nice to see her and chit chat with her.
Sunday, my mom and I put our best clothes on and went to the nutcracker. We have this tradition every year, with the exception of two years. So we have been going for 12 years now. Pretty fantastic. We go out to eat at Cutters Bayhouse and then go to afternoon Ballet. It's such a nice treat.
Monday through Wednesday I watched my favorite kids ever. Mitchell and Gyasi. Such great kids. We didn't do much. I dragged them to see Santa on Tuesday and after I finished up some Christmas shopping.
Wednesday night I went down to visit Brads parents and older brother and his cute family. I am so thankful for a great sister in law like Christine. I'm not sure what I would do without her. She's pretty fantastic. We decorated gingerbread cookies and played a board game till the wee hours of the morning. I don't believe I've laughed that hard in a VERY long time. :-) Thank you Don and Ferol for making the game even more awkward! hehe.
Christmas and Christmas eve wasn't the same without Brad here. yes, this would have been our first married Christmas together, but we have been dating for close to 5 years. We have spent close to all of them together. It's just not the same. So Christmas came and went like it was nothing to me.
I have had the wonderful chance to go on a 'date' with my good friend Jamie. We ate out at a Thai food restaurant and then saw a 2 dollar movie.
I've also had a great time catching up with my little sister Kelsey. She is another person i am so thankful for in my life. We have so much in common and i am so blessed to have her in my life and as my little sister.
Today I got to spend some quality time with my very good friend Nicole and her family. Malachi was as sweet as ever the entire time. I'm not sure I've seen such a welbehaved young man and he is only 9 months old.
Over all I've had a pretty good trip. I've had a few minor bumps in the road and I miss home tremendously. I miss my good friends that I've made back in billings and they have made it very clear that they miss me as well.
Update on Brad:
he is doing well. It was a shared feeling about spending Christmas away from each other. Neither of us enjoyed it. It seems that holidays are hard. however, we are pretty close to booking my plane ticket to Ireland in April. Before we know it I'll be blogging about how excited I am to go to Ireland. He is ready to come home and not be where he is. He isn't enjoying his time there and wants it done sooner than later. He however got his big black tote with all of his extra stuff. among those things was his new xbox that we bought him before he left, so that makes me happy that he is doing something he enjoys. I continue to send him care packages once every two weeks or so. I never want him to feel like I have forgotten about him.
Ashley is about 5 months pregnant now, pushing 6. We found out before I left that she is having a little boy and she couldn't be happier!! It's exciting to have all of these boys in my life. First with THE most important, my wonderful husband. Then Jadon was born. Malachi was next. and the 3rd in line is little Finn David Wiser. its been pretty cool to go through this pregnancy with her. I am so flattered that she has let me be so involved with her during the pregnancy.
I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.
Friday morning I woke up early and drove down to the Olympia area and visited my nephew Jadon. It was his first birthday that we were celebrating. I was representing Team Ireland ( the youngest Irelands ) with my mom as well. My mom and I then made a quick stop at the air force base for a few things and drove back up north.
My own brother, Alan, shares the birthday with jadon. Actually, the other way around. They share the same birthday day. anyway, we went out to dinner that night to 13 coins across from the airport. I had never been in there, nor will I ever go in again unless someone else is paying. Holy smokes that place is pricey. We had a good time however.
Saturday I went and spend some quality time with my grandmother. It was nice to see her and chit chat with her.
Sunday, my mom and I put our best clothes on and went to the nutcracker. We have this tradition every year, with the exception of two years. So we have been going for 12 years now. Pretty fantastic. We go out to eat at Cutters Bayhouse and then go to afternoon Ballet. It's such a nice treat.
Monday through Wednesday I watched my favorite kids ever. Mitchell and Gyasi. Such great kids. We didn't do much. I dragged them to see Santa on Tuesday and after I finished up some Christmas shopping.
Wednesday night I went down to visit Brads parents and older brother and his cute family. I am so thankful for a great sister in law like Christine. I'm not sure what I would do without her. She's pretty fantastic. We decorated gingerbread cookies and played a board game till the wee hours of the morning. I don't believe I've laughed that hard in a VERY long time. :-) Thank you Don and Ferol for making the game even more awkward! hehe.
Christmas and Christmas eve wasn't the same without Brad here. yes, this would have been our first married Christmas together, but we have been dating for close to 5 years. We have spent close to all of them together. It's just not the same. So Christmas came and went like it was nothing to me.
I have had the wonderful chance to go on a 'date' with my good friend Jamie. We ate out at a Thai food restaurant and then saw a 2 dollar movie.
I've also had a great time catching up with my little sister Kelsey. She is another person i am so thankful for in my life. We have so much in common and i am so blessed to have her in my life and as my little sister.
Today I got to spend some quality time with my very good friend Nicole and her family. Malachi was as sweet as ever the entire time. I'm not sure I've seen such a welbehaved young man and he is only 9 months old.
Over all I've had a pretty good trip. I've had a few minor bumps in the road and I miss home tremendously. I miss my good friends that I've made back in billings and they have made it very clear that they miss me as well.
Update on Brad:
he is doing well. It was a shared feeling about spending Christmas away from each other. Neither of us enjoyed it. It seems that holidays are hard. however, we are pretty close to booking my plane ticket to Ireland in April. Before we know it I'll be blogging about how excited I am to go to Ireland. He is ready to come home and not be where he is. He isn't enjoying his time there and wants it done sooner than later. He however got his big black tote with all of his extra stuff. among those things was his new xbox that we bought him before he left, so that makes me happy that he is doing something he enjoys. I continue to send him care packages once every two weeks or so. I never want him to feel like I have forgotten about him.
Ashley is about 5 months pregnant now, pushing 6. We found out before I left that she is having a little boy and she couldn't be happier!! It's exciting to have all of these boys in my life. First with THE most important, my wonderful husband. Then Jadon was born. Malachi was next. and the 3rd in line is little Finn David Wiser. its been pretty cool to go through this pregnancy with her. I am so flattered that she has let me be so involved with her during the pregnancy.
I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
my heart story
My mom wrote this out to one of my teachers in middle school . . . so these are her words, not mine. she can tell the story a whole lot better than I can.
Here’s the scoop on Megan’s heart.
Last Thursday Megan had an appointment with a Pediatric Cardiologist (children’s heart specialist) at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. She had been having pains in her chest and heart and her regular doctor wanted her to be checked out more thoroughly. We already knew that she had a heart murmur - lots of people have them and it is usually no big deal.
The Cardiologist listened to Megan’s heart for a long time and decided she would have an Echo-cardiogram. Also known as an ultra sound. It was really cool to watch the technician do the test. Megan can explain what they did. When the Doctor came back into the exam room he said the results were a TOTAL surprise to him.
First of all, he said the pains she described were normal pains that young people between about 4 and 14 years old have. They are connected to growing and hormones. Not something to be worried about.
Next he said that Megan has a passage (a fistula) from the Left Coronary Artery to the Pulmonary Artery ...... where there shouldn’t be one! The condition is not life-threatening right now but will be when she is much older (like 50 years old). To fix this, Megan will have to have a procedure called a heart catheterization, where they will insert a hollow tube into a vein in her groin and then into her heart to look around and see what’s going on. This can also be called an angiogram. If the surgeon sees that everything in her heart is OK and can fix the hole while doing the catheterization he will. If, for some reason, he can’t then she will have to have open heart surgery during the summer to fix the condition.
After Spring Break 1999:
The results of the heart catheterization were a bigger surprise than the echo-cardiogram. The cardiologist talked with us before Megan came out of the recovery room and told us that she had a major, rare heart defect that had been present from birth. The ONLY way to fix it was with open heart surgery. Almost immediately. Of the 300 heart surgeries they do at Children’s each year, they fix maybe 2 like this one. The defect is officially known as Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery. In other words, it wasn’t attached where it should’a been! The LCA kinda leaks into the pulmonary artery - what they initially thought was the hole - instead of attaching to the Aorta. The right coronary artery was enlarged because for 12 years it had been doing all of the work of both arteries. We are lucky to have Megan with us. Usually this is a defect they find and fix in infants because they are sickly and have lots of health/heart problems. Those were never words that described Megan.
What needed to be done was to detach the left coronary artery (LCA) from the pulmonary artery (PA) and reinsert it into the Aorta. In the realm of heart surgery this was a “low risk” “easy fix” - only if you are talking about someone else’s child!
The following is from an email to an adult friend of Megan’s from California, describing most of the experience. You can use all of it, some of it, or none of it for a topic of discussion in your health class. Megan talks pretty freely about this whole amazing part of her life. I know she doesn’t remember some of what happened after the surgery (they plan it that way!).
She amazes me. We call her Megan the Brave. She went into all of this
with such good spirit. The surgery lasted about 4 hours with a nurse
reporting to us at the "high" points - when it started, when she was on
the heart/lung by-pass machine, when the actual fix was finished, when
she was off the by-pass and when they were completely finished with the
surgery. The actual reinsertion of the artery only took 20-30 minutes
and it was a piece of cake because of her adult size vessels. We got to
see her in the ICU about an hour after they finished . The surgeon came
and talked to us about how it all went and he was very pleased with her
vital signs. He said that sometimes the heart needs to be "primed" with
blood, saline or an electrical charge when it comes off the by-pass. He
said that Megan's heart just jumped right in and took over with no help
what so ever. (Well, maybe just from her flock of guardian angels )
It was hard to see her in ICU with ALL those tubes and wires. She had
an IV in both hands, one ankle and the side of her neck, a urinary
catheter, a chest drain tube, pacer wires on either side of the drain, EKG
electrodes all over, and the ventilator tube in her mouth. When she
opened her eyes, she smiled and gave a "thumbs up" when I asked how she
was. What a kid. ICU was a wonderful, friendly place. We stayed there
for a day and a half before they moved her to a room. I was able to
stay at the hospital the whole time. They really cater to kids and
families at Children's Hosp.! Megan felt better as each tube was
removed. Every medical person was amazed with the speed of her
recovery. I guess that comes from being healthy and fit. The biggest
problem she had in the hospital was with throwing up. The anesthetic
and morphine shut her stomach and bowels down pretty completely.
Eventually she could keep down saltines and 7-UP and she said they never
tasted so good!
The surgery was Tuesday morning and we were home by 6:00 pm on Friday.
She is moving slowly but improves daily. She's had no pain meds since
last Tuesday (and that was just Motrin)....... one week post-op. At
that post-op appointment, she had a little fluid between her heart and
lung on one side and the heart was still slightly enlarged. They put
her on Lasix and an anti-inflamatory. By Friday at the echo cardiogram
appointment, the fluid was gone and her heart was still enlarged but
noticeably less than before. She goes back to school on Tuesday (! )
Amazing.
The scar. Its beautiful! A long, thin line. The Doc. uses a plastic
surgery closure not staples, so there is no Frankenstein scar. With
proper care and no sun exposure it should fade to barely noticeable!
And that's the whole story. :)
Here’s the scoop on Megan’s heart.
Last Thursday Megan had an appointment with a Pediatric Cardiologist (children’s heart specialist) at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. She had been having pains in her chest and heart and her regular doctor wanted her to be checked out more thoroughly. We already knew that she had a heart murmur - lots of people have them and it is usually no big deal.
The Cardiologist listened to Megan’s heart for a long time and decided she would have an Echo-cardiogram. Also known as an ultra sound. It was really cool to watch the technician do the test. Megan can explain what they did. When the Doctor came back into the exam room he said the results were a TOTAL surprise to him.
First of all, he said the pains she described were normal pains that young people between about 4 and 14 years old have. They are connected to growing and hormones. Not something to be worried about.
Next he said that Megan has a passage (a fistula) from the Left Coronary Artery to the Pulmonary Artery ...... where there shouldn’t be one! The condition is not life-threatening right now but will be when she is much older (like 50 years old). To fix this, Megan will have to have a procedure called a heart catheterization, where they will insert a hollow tube into a vein in her groin and then into her heart to look around and see what’s going on. This can also be called an angiogram. If the surgeon sees that everything in her heart is OK and can fix the hole while doing the catheterization he will. If, for some reason, he can’t then she will have to have open heart surgery during the summer to fix the condition.
After Spring Break 1999:
The results of the heart catheterization were a bigger surprise than the echo-cardiogram. The cardiologist talked with us before Megan came out of the recovery room and told us that she had a major, rare heart defect that had been present from birth. The ONLY way to fix it was with open heart surgery. Almost immediately. Of the 300 heart surgeries they do at Children’s each year, they fix maybe 2 like this one. The defect is officially known as Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery. In other words, it wasn’t attached where it should’a been! The LCA kinda leaks into the pulmonary artery - what they initially thought was the hole - instead of attaching to the Aorta. The right coronary artery was enlarged because for 12 years it had been doing all of the work of both arteries. We are lucky to have Megan with us. Usually this is a defect they find and fix in infants because they are sickly and have lots of health/heart problems. Those were never words that described Megan.
What needed to be done was to detach the left coronary artery (LCA) from the pulmonary artery (PA) and reinsert it into the Aorta. In the realm of heart surgery this was a “low risk” “easy fix” - only if you are talking about someone else’s child!
The following is from an email to an adult friend of Megan’s from California, describing most of the experience. You can use all of it, some of it, or none of it for a topic of discussion in your health class. Megan talks pretty freely about this whole amazing part of her life. I know she doesn’t remember some of what happened after the surgery (they plan it that way!).
She amazes me. We call her Megan the Brave. She went into all of this
with such good spirit. The surgery lasted about 4 hours with a nurse
reporting to us at the "high" points - when it started, when she was on
the heart/lung by-pass machine, when the actual fix was finished, when
she was off the by-pass and when they were completely finished with the
surgery. The actual reinsertion of the artery only took 20-30 minutes
and it was a piece of cake because of her adult size vessels. We got to
see her in the ICU about an hour after they finished . The surgeon came
and talked to us about how it all went and he was very pleased with her
vital signs. He said that sometimes the heart needs to be "primed" with
blood, saline or an electrical charge when it comes off the by-pass. He
said that Megan's heart just jumped right in and took over with no help
what so ever. (Well, maybe just from her flock of guardian angels )
It was hard to see her in ICU with ALL those tubes and wires. She had
an IV in both hands, one ankle and the side of her neck, a urinary
catheter, a chest drain tube, pacer wires on either side of the drain, EKG
electrodes all over, and the ventilator tube in her mouth. When she
opened her eyes, she smiled and gave a "thumbs up" when I asked how she
was. What a kid. ICU was a wonderful, friendly place. We stayed there
for a day and a half before they moved her to a room. I was able to
stay at the hospital the whole time. They really cater to kids and
families at Children's Hosp.! Megan felt better as each tube was
removed. Every medical person was amazed with the speed of her
recovery. I guess that comes from being healthy and fit. The biggest
problem she had in the hospital was with throwing up. The anesthetic
and morphine shut her stomach and bowels down pretty completely.
Eventually she could keep down saltines and 7-UP and she said they never
tasted so good!
The surgery was Tuesday morning and we were home by 6:00 pm on Friday.
She is moving slowly but improves daily. She's had no pain meds since
last Tuesday (and that was just Motrin)....... one week post-op. At
that post-op appointment, she had a little fluid between her heart and
lung on one side and the heart was still slightly enlarged. They put
her on Lasix and an anti-inflamatory. By Friday at the echo cardiogram
appointment, the fluid was gone and her heart was still enlarged but
noticeably less than before. She goes back to school on Tuesday (! )
Amazing.
The scar. Its beautiful! A long, thin line. The Doc. uses a plastic
surgery closure not staples, so there is no Frankenstein scar. With
proper care and no sun exposure it should fade to barely noticeable!
And that's the whole story. :)
Thursday, December 9, 2010
forgotten rank
More often then not, when you think about soldiers you generally think about just the one solider.The one who served their duty whether it be over seas or not. You don't often think about those they left at home and behind. The wives and children who have to continue with day to day life while their solider does his own thing.
I have found this the hardest so far in the deployment. I've been kind of sad lately actually. I'm not sure if it's because its the holiday time and I'm missing Brad. Maybe it's that I haven't been getting calls nearly as much. I can't put my finger on it.
Regardless, I am feeling more and more like the forgotten rank. Some people I've talked to had said that being an army wife is the toughest job IN the army. I would have to agree with that. Although I don't really know whats going on where Brad is and what his day to day schedule is like, I can only imagine. I know he doesn't enjoy everyone he works with, but beggars can't be choosers. He doesn't have near the amount of responsibility as we do at home. He assumes that I will take care of everything as best I can. But what about the things that only he knows more about. I can't take care of things when I can't talk to him and get more details. This has become a huge obstacle for us to jump over. Where is the happy medium of phone calls and emails? What would you rather get? If your husband was gone for a long amount of time, regardless of where he is, would you rather get an email every day or a phone call once a week? Ponder that. Emails are nice, but hearing your loved one's voice is another. It's also nice though to know whats going on so you feel like you are a part of their life still.
I've noticed that I have done a lot for Brad in the past few weeks. I send him a care package at least once every two weeks. I make sure he is taken care of with requests. He had requested hand warmers, so those go in every care package. I made him a photo book on shutterfly of he and I. I send him pictures and drink mix, Halloween candy, Christmas candy . . . the whole 9 yards. This might sound selfish, but where is my care package? Who is making sure that I am taken care of? Its easy to take care of him and make sure that he is happy over there, but I need a little bit more attention from him.
I did however get my own little care package from my wonderful sister-in-law Christine. That was pretty special. She made a little photo book of our Yellowstone trip. Pretty cool.
Army women are a special breed of women. You can't be a wimp if you are involved with an army man. any service man . . .its hard. You have to be ok with being alone sometimes. I am done being alone. I am counting down the days that I get to sleep next to my husband again. When we get to drive somewhere together. Its the small things that I didn't take advantage of before that I'm missing now. I would do close to anything right now just for a hug and a kiss from Brad. It's been too long.
So those of you who have your spouse with you right now, give them an extra big hug and kiss because they are there and you can.
The positive side to all of this is that I get to travel back to Seattle for a few weeks for the holidays. So I won't be so alone. My 'little sister' comes back from Italy a few days after I arrive home as well. That will be amazing to see her and hug her. The last time I saw her was in June and we didn't leave on the best terms.
It will be wonderful to see all of my friends. I'm looking forward to seeing Ms.Jamie Farris. I've known her since the 5th grade. She's a pretty fabulous lady. I get to spend quality time with my extended family, the Irelands, for little Jadon's 1st birthday. Jadon and my own brother share the same birthday, although Alan has a good 29 years on Jadon. I get to spend time with my sister soul mate Nicole Salmond and her little pride and joy Malachi. I plan on being so busy while back in Seattle that I don't think about Brad often. But it's hard. Maybe that's another reason why we moved here for the deployment and didn't stay home. Too many memories.
We'll see how the next few days go. Hopefully something changes for the good and things start to pick up. I am just about done with being a debbie downer.
I have found this the hardest so far in the deployment. I've been kind of sad lately actually. I'm not sure if it's because its the holiday time and I'm missing Brad. Maybe it's that I haven't been getting calls nearly as much. I can't put my finger on it.
Regardless, I am feeling more and more like the forgotten rank. Some people I've talked to had said that being an army wife is the toughest job IN the army. I would have to agree with that. Although I don't really know whats going on where Brad is and what his day to day schedule is like, I can only imagine. I know he doesn't enjoy everyone he works with, but beggars can't be choosers. He doesn't have near the amount of responsibility as we do at home. He assumes that I will take care of everything as best I can. But what about the things that only he knows more about. I can't take care of things when I can't talk to him and get more details. This has become a huge obstacle for us to jump over. Where is the happy medium of phone calls and emails? What would you rather get? If your husband was gone for a long amount of time, regardless of where he is, would you rather get an email every day or a phone call once a week? Ponder that. Emails are nice, but hearing your loved one's voice is another. It's also nice though to know whats going on so you feel like you are a part of their life still.
I've noticed that I have done a lot for Brad in the past few weeks. I send him a care package at least once every two weeks. I make sure he is taken care of with requests. He had requested hand warmers, so those go in every care package. I made him a photo book on shutterfly of he and I. I send him pictures and drink mix, Halloween candy, Christmas candy . . . the whole 9 yards. This might sound selfish, but where is my care package? Who is making sure that I am taken care of? Its easy to take care of him and make sure that he is happy over there, but I need a little bit more attention from him.
I did however get my own little care package from my wonderful sister-in-law Christine. That was pretty special. She made a little photo book of our Yellowstone trip. Pretty cool.
Army women are a special breed of women. You can't be a wimp if you are involved with an army man. any service man . . .its hard. You have to be ok with being alone sometimes. I am done being alone. I am counting down the days that I get to sleep next to my husband again. When we get to drive somewhere together. Its the small things that I didn't take advantage of before that I'm missing now. I would do close to anything right now just for a hug and a kiss from Brad. It's been too long.
So those of you who have your spouse with you right now, give them an extra big hug and kiss because they are there and you can.
The positive side to all of this is that I get to travel back to Seattle for a few weeks for the holidays. So I won't be so alone. My 'little sister' comes back from Italy a few days after I arrive home as well. That will be amazing to see her and hug her. The last time I saw her was in June and we didn't leave on the best terms.
It will be wonderful to see all of my friends. I'm looking forward to seeing Ms.Jamie Farris. I've known her since the 5th grade. She's a pretty fabulous lady. I get to spend quality time with my extended family, the Irelands, for little Jadon's 1st birthday. Jadon and my own brother share the same birthday, although Alan has a good 29 years on Jadon. I get to spend time with my sister soul mate Nicole Salmond and her little pride and joy Malachi. I plan on being so busy while back in Seattle that I don't think about Brad often. But it's hard. Maybe that's another reason why we moved here for the deployment and didn't stay home. Too many memories.
We'll see how the next few days go. Hopefully something changes for the good and things start to pick up. I am just about done with being a debbie downer.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
wednesday night health class
So for those of you who don't know, I had my health class every Wednesday night from 6-9 pm. It was a pretty awesome class. My instructor is a very cool guy who has helped me through the semester tremendously. He is a prior service member and understood what I was going through with Brad being gone and visiting him on his 4 day pass. He's pretty cool. So thank you Mr.Rumph for a great semester.
What the blog is really about is the cardiovascular stuff we talked about tonight in class. It dawned on me, for the first time in a very long time, about how lucky I am to be still be alive. My heart had such issues. For 12 years, half of my heart was working and I am alive to say that! Who lives through half of your heart working for 12 years without being sick and not active? At any given moment, my heart could have stopped working and that's be the end of Megan. Yes, that's a morbid thought, but it's true. People survive through these things every day. We also learned that cardiologists and surgeons now have the ability of doing invitro heart surgery. Heart surgery when still in the womb! How amazing is technology?
Anyway, I just had a little break through tonight. I had a quick upper in my kind of blah day.
maybe I'll post my heart defect story for all of you . . . . 2 people who regularly read this . . . to read and know more about me!
What the blog is really about is the cardiovascular stuff we talked about tonight in class. It dawned on me, for the first time in a very long time, about how lucky I am to be still be alive. My heart had such issues. For 12 years, half of my heart was working and I am alive to say that! Who lives through half of your heart working for 12 years without being sick and not active? At any given moment, my heart could have stopped working and that's be the end of Megan. Yes, that's a morbid thought, but it's true. People survive through these things every day. We also learned that cardiologists and surgeons now have the ability of doing invitro heart surgery. Heart surgery when still in the womb! How amazing is technology?
Anyway, I just had a little break through tonight. I had a quick upper in my kind of blah day.
maybe I'll post my heart defect story for all of you . . . . 2 people who regularly read this . . . to read and know more about me!
Monday, December 6, 2010
December Post
WOW! I really haven't written since last month! Shame on me.
Re-cap on November then.
We got lots of snow about 3 weeks ago. I was forced to then go and purchase new tires. When I walked in, they asked to see my tires. Once an employee came in, they were very surprised that I actually made it there alive and didn't slide off the road. My tires were THAT bald. So 4 new tires later, I am thankful for that purchase.
Later that week was thanksgiving! Instead of going home and having turkey day with my parents and brother, some army ladies and I went to a cabin in Nye Montana. Debbie works for the billings clinic and the doctor that she works for has this beautiful cabin there and his family let us borrow it for our holiday weekend. I'm not sure I've laughed that hard in a very long time. Lots of laughs, some tears, and lots of snow. I'm not sure what day it was, but we made snow soldiers one day.
My idea! :-) They are pretty darn cute if I don't say so myself. We ended up getting snowed in on Saturday. We had the best intention of leaving early Saturday morning so we could resume with our lives that night. Debbie had tickets to the Nutcracker here in town that she had to miss. We made it about a quarter of a mile to the road and got stuck at the first cattle guard. We had made friends with a local plowing guy who we dubbed "bern-dog" and asked him if he could come and help us get out. 4 hours later, he called back and said he was on his way. Turns out, HE got stuck trying to get US out.
Well, it wouldn't be a happy ending if it wasn't for a nice gentleman named Skylar. Skylar had a cute dog named wilson and was a very good lookin guy! Neither skylar or bern-dog could get us out, so skylar said that he would come back tomorrow and help us get out. Saturday night we were all at each others throats. We wanted to get home. We were sick of turkey. None of our cell phones worked and there was no Internet! Tell me, what DID we do before technology? Crazy huh!
So Sunday morning, skylar came over and by goly got us out. We were home by 4pm and all ready to have some alone time.
My friend Tracy who got engaged a few weeks ago will be Mrs.Hagan sooner than we thought because Chas ( her fiance ) is in the army. There is a huge chance that he'll get deployed here pretty soon at a moments notice, so they are speeding up the process. It's not the ideal situation to have a wedding that quick, but he wants her to be taken care of. They plan on getting married on December 23rd in New Jersey. The BIG white wedding will be in the spring of 2012! guess who is the maid of honor?! Yours truly! It was such a compliment to be asked to be a maid of honor. Tracy and I haven't known each other for very long, but think that we were meant to be friends. I know the ropes ( and am still learning ) of how to be a military wife of a solider who is deployed. I have some helpful hints for her and I can commiserate with her.
Update on Brad: He is fine. His schedule got changed AGAIN! He works the day shift now, from 9am to 7pm. So kind of like a regular job. Thing is though is that he just got used to his old schedule and they changed it again. Here is to hoping he stays with this schedule. The President made a surprise visit to the base Brad is at. They had to go and listen to him. Brad was less then thrilled to spend his time he would spend sleeping, listening to him, but now he can say he has been in the same room as the President! Pretty cool.
For the countdown, we stand at 314 days! Amazing how fast time goes by!
My dear friend Ashley who is pregnant is now 4 months along. I have had the privilege to spend lots of time with her through this and document it through pictures. I can only imagine how Zach feels with not being here through her pregnancy so I take pictures for him to see as well! She's getting big!! We get to find out the sex of the baby here in the next week or so. How exciting! :-)
The FRG had their Christmas party! It went really well. more people turned out to this one that the Halloween event! Pretty exciting!
It's finals week next week and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I feel like the semester just started or like I need more time with classes. Still, amazing how fast time goes by.
I am going to visit my parents back in Seattle for Christmas and new years! I'm soo excited to be somewhere that doesn't have 3 feet of snow. I guess I can't complain now because it's been melting, but that doesn't change the fact that the high today was 30! We are going to have a heat wave this week. Wednesday it's going to be darn near 50 degrees!! Woo whooooo!
Kelsey, whom I fondly refer to as Little sister, comes home from Italy this month as well. I'm so very excited to see her. I've missed her tremendously. We had a HUGE argument before she left for Italy and have since then sorted it out. Thank goodness. I'm not sure what I'd do without her. She is so important in my life. It's hard to give up a friend after 13 years! Love ya kels.
Pretty sure that's it for now. I'll try and be better with posting things more often! Should be easier since I'll be done with school here pretty soon!
Re-cap on November then.
We got lots of snow about 3 weeks ago. I was forced to then go and purchase new tires. When I walked in, they asked to see my tires. Once an employee came in, they were very surprised that I actually made it there alive and didn't slide off the road. My tires were THAT bald. So 4 new tires later, I am thankful for that purchase.
Later that week was thanksgiving! Instead of going home and having turkey day with my parents and brother, some army ladies and I went to a cabin in Nye Montana. Debbie works for the billings clinic and the doctor that she works for has this beautiful cabin there and his family let us borrow it for our holiday weekend. I'm not sure I've laughed that hard in a very long time. Lots of laughs, some tears, and lots of snow. I'm not sure what day it was, but we made snow soldiers one day.
My idea! :-) They are pretty darn cute if I don't say so myself. We ended up getting snowed in on Saturday. We had the best intention of leaving early Saturday morning so we could resume with our lives that night. Debbie had tickets to the Nutcracker here in town that she had to miss. We made it about a quarter of a mile to the road and got stuck at the first cattle guard. We had made friends with a local plowing guy who we dubbed "bern-dog" and asked him if he could come and help us get out. 4 hours later, he called back and said he was on his way. Turns out, HE got stuck trying to get US out.
Well, it wouldn't be a happy ending if it wasn't for a nice gentleman named Skylar. Skylar had a cute dog named wilson and was a very good lookin guy! Neither skylar or bern-dog could get us out, so skylar said that he would come back tomorrow and help us get out. Saturday night we were all at each others throats. We wanted to get home. We were sick of turkey. None of our cell phones worked and there was no Internet! Tell me, what DID we do before technology? Crazy huh!
So Sunday morning, skylar came over and by goly got us out. We were home by 4pm and all ready to have some alone time.
My friend Tracy who got engaged a few weeks ago will be Mrs.Hagan sooner than we thought because Chas ( her fiance ) is in the army. There is a huge chance that he'll get deployed here pretty soon at a moments notice, so they are speeding up the process. It's not the ideal situation to have a wedding that quick, but he wants her to be taken care of. They plan on getting married on December 23rd in New Jersey. The BIG white wedding will be in the spring of 2012! guess who is the maid of honor?! Yours truly! It was such a compliment to be asked to be a maid of honor. Tracy and I haven't known each other for very long, but think that we were meant to be friends. I know the ropes ( and am still learning ) of how to be a military wife of a solider who is deployed. I have some helpful hints for her and I can commiserate with her.
Update on Brad: He is fine. His schedule got changed AGAIN! He works the day shift now, from 9am to 7pm. So kind of like a regular job. Thing is though is that he just got used to his old schedule and they changed it again. Here is to hoping he stays with this schedule. The President made a surprise visit to the base Brad is at. They had to go and listen to him. Brad was less then thrilled to spend his time he would spend sleeping, listening to him, but now he can say he has been in the same room as the President! Pretty cool.
For the countdown, we stand at 314 days! Amazing how fast time goes by!
My dear friend Ashley who is pregnant is now 4 months along. I have had the privilege to spend lots of time with her through this and document it through pictures. I can only imagine how Zach feels with not being here through her pregnancy so I take pictures for him to see as well! She's getting big!! We get to find out the sex of the baby here in the next week or so. How exciting! :-)
The FRG had their Christmas party! It went really well. more people turned out to this one that the Halloween event! Pretty exciting!
It's finals week next week and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I feel like the semester just started or like I need more time with classes. Still, amazing how fast time goes by.
I am going to visit my parents back in Seattle for Christmas and new years! I'm soo excited to be somewhere that doesn't have 3 feet of snow. I guess I can't complain now because it's been melting, but that doesn't change the fact that the high today was 30! We are going to have a heat wave this week. Wednesday it's going to be darn near 50 degrees!! Woo whooooo!
Kelsey, whom I fondly refer to as Little sister, comes home from Italy this month as well. I'm so very excited to see her. I've missed her tremendously. We had a HUGE argument before she left for Italy and have since then sorted it out. Thank goodness. I'm not sure what I'd do without her. She is so important in my life. It's hard to give up a friend after 13 years! Love ya kels.
Pretty sure that's it for now. I'll try and be better with posting things more often! Should be easier since I'll be done with school here pretty soon!
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