Things will be fine in 2009!!!

It’s a new year…and that means new adventures in life. I’m excited….2008 certainly brought me many adventures…..some happy, some sad….but all brought about changes in my life that I wouldn’t trade for anything. So before I go forward let me recap the past month and a half to fill you in on why I haven’t blogged since mid November.

So at my last update my mother in law had suffered a stroke and after a bleak initial diagnosis, she began to turn around. We continued to see marked progress in her and the nurses in the ICU were WONDERFUL with her. She improved so well in fact, that she finally was well enough to be moved to a regular room on one of the hospital floors. We thought that would be a good thing, instead however that is when all of the problems began. What followed were three weeks of emotionally and physically draining hell.

Without going into overwhelming detail….in a nutshell we encountered multiple incidents of neglect (so bad in fact that at one point she contracted pneumonia and had to be sent back to ICU for a week), false orders (DNR), and constant phone calls from hospital staff telling us she wasn’t improving (in direct contradiction to what we saw when we were there with her) and trying to get us to let her die. Things got so bad we had to bring in a 24 hour private duty nurse to watch her and make sure she was getting proper care. Over time Momchu began to get tired….she overheard our conversations with the staff, chewing them out for lack of proper care etc and I think she was as weary as we were. She was fully aware of her surroundings, and was as interactive with us as always (even though she was tired physically and her speech was still impaired heavily) and although we had to make it a guessing game to talk to her, she communicated quite well.. So one night the three of us, Ben, Mike and me all hung out in her room for a few hours and watched some movies with her. She was bubbly and in good spirits, blowing kisses and such.

Two days later she was gone. They said it was brought on by her pulling out her oxygen line….but I had personally put on the little padded boxing gloves to prevent her from doing that and so I know they were tight and there was no physical way she could have done that without help. Not to mention the fact that they were supposed to be checking her hourly, and they admitted that they hadn’t found her until the morning and by then her oxygen levels were so low that she couldn’t fight her way back.

It would have been really easy to get sucked into the rage of the tragedy….and stay there…..but as you know, I ALWAYS know God places a scarlet thread of good in every situation…no matter how deeply imbedded. This one happened to show up relatively early. After years of unsuccessfully trying to contact my brother in law who had, for various personal reasons, removed himself from the family, Ben hopped onto my Facebook account and sent him an email. By that night, he had contacted us and a few days later I got to meet him for the first time at her wake. By the after funeral luncheon the next day I realized how happy I was to have him back in the family. He has the same wack job sense of humor that Ben and Mike have and he likes hot peppers as much as Ben too. That one still makes me shake my head! LOL.

Soooooooo……..as horrible as it was to lose mom, it was all worth it in the end because it brought my brother in law back to the family when possibly nothing else would have.

Meanwhile….during the drama with Momchu, Tatu, my father in law, was in the hospital twice during that time. Long story….but after a brief stint in a nursing home for rehab, he is fine now and thankfully there is no more news to report regarding him. My parents FINALLY finalized their divorce….something that was LONG overdue and had the same relieving effect as setting a broken arm after it had been left to dangle uselessly and painfully for almost 10 years. I was actually in court with my mother helping her fight her case when the phone call for Momchu came in. Thankfully I didn’t listen to the voicemail until we had recessed for lunch.

Work at Sprout Central has been soooooooo much more than I ever imagined. I can honestly say I have not enjoyed a job this much, in years……perhaps ever. From coming up with fun and creative crafts for them to make, to doling out snacks and cheering them on like a maniac when they go potty, I am loving every minute of it. My co-workers are amazing and fun like a family and the kids….ohhhhhhhh the kids. Some are exasperating…..but the vast majority are a blast. WHERE has this job BEEN my whole life???? On that note however, I REALLY must insert a PRAISE GOD here. When I left my job at the deathstar, my last day was ten years almost to the day that I was hired. When they mailed me my final paycheck ( I left mid pay period) we were shocked at the huge dollar amount of the check . It was FAR larger than it should have been, in fact it was the amount of three of my normal paychecks with them. Upon some research I realized that since I had worked a few days past my original hire date I technically qualified for all of the vacation time I would have had to use for the year. Instead of writing it off, they GAVE it to me in one massive payout!!! Something I had never imagined or planned or dreamed of. I couldn’t help but think that after all the years of garbage I had endured there and the fact that I refused to be cruel or callous upon my exit (even though my friends and coworkers encouraged me to leave the same nasty way the company treated me, and fleshly speaking they would have deserved it), but to honor my God and my faith, and I even TOLD my coworkers that in my last weeks there, God chose to bless me because of that. Something I was and still am, sooooooo thankful for. God ROCKS!!!

Sargie is doing well. He has decided that he loves to have his teeth brushed and every time I try to brush my own he wedges his way between me and the sink whining and crying for me to do his. LOL. He also experienced his first snow last week. LOL…oohhhhhhhhhh my goodness, what a nut. He LOVED it and repeatedly asked to go outside again and again so he could snowplow with his nose, run, jump, hop and roll in the snow. We took him to the home of some family friends for dinner one night where he played endlessly with their two little girl mini American Eskimo dogs. One of which was totally enamored with him…we joked that she had a crush on him…since he IS an older man (she was only 7 months old). LOL.

Our Christmas was quiet….we just didn’t feel like celebrating this year, and didn’t even exchange gifts. Sargie is the only one that lost out on that deal…pitiful boy….but doting mom and dad will buy him plenty of gifts later. Instead, Christmas day we slept most of the day away and watched TV.

I know this year is going to be a good one though, 2008 proved it to me…..no bad thing ever happens without being followed by a God thing…a GOOD thing. So, happy new year to all of you and lets go forward with excitement and anticipation for all the great adventures this year holds!!!

Update on life

Wow.........it's been a long two weeks or week and a half...or however long.....the days are starting to run together to be honest. A LOT has happened, but the two biggest things are my dear mother in law (nicknamed Momchu) had a stroke a week and a half ago....on the night of the 6th (yeah we never did get to the MC birthday ball...or even our hotel suite, but that's ok) . We were told that night that she wouldn't make it and even if she did....that her quality of life would be so poor that we should let her go just to spare her. Of course we all love her so even the thought of doing such a thing was just unthinkable......so we prayed....we told God we were ok with whatever He decided to do with her, but that we were asking for a miracle. Within an hour we began to see a turn around and almost all signs of paralysis began to fade with a restoration of movement and basic motor skills. She still has a long way to go, but she is alert, communicative and with proper rehab will make a wonderful recovery.
The second thing that happened is I started my new job (instead of the nickname of Deathstar like my last job, the new nickname for my job will be Sprout Central) and I LOVE it!!! The kids are great, a few behavioral quirks here and there....but overall...they are AWESOME!! Besides.....after 9 years of working at the deathstar.....nothing can phase me. LOL. So I am enjoying everything from wiping noses, changing diapers and getting the bottoms of my shoes sticky from spilled juice......to dancing around like a maniac, walking children to the park on a rope leash and reading the same page in a storybook 20 times because it has the picture of a snowman on it. LOL. I am really enjoying it too....I'm not just saying it either....I'm REALLY having a BLAST!!! Plus the other teachers are soooooo great to work with...it's making the whole process fun. I think the worst thing I've had to deal with so far was sitting on a dried and crusty booger. Yeah that was pretty nasty.....but other than that....no complaints. LOL.
So that's the 411 for now.....it's not every detail...but at least it catches you up on my last two weeks so I can start fresh with more amusing entries.

Once a Marine, Always a Marine

Now if you aren’t familiar with the Marine Corps or the Marine Corps Birthday Ball let me explain. The Corps is the only American military branch that has an ingrained pride so deep that they bleed honor. Everything they do is with fine tuned precision and with the utmost respect and protocol. They are gentleman warriors, fiercely proud of not just their service to God and country, but also to the brotherhood of the Corps. Due to this intense pride, they make a point of celebrating the birth of their beloved corps every year. Even when on the battlefield, the birthday is properly recognized and celebrated. During Ben's time in Vietnam they had thousands of steaks, (the kind that are as thick as roasts) flown in so that every Marine could have a proper steak dinner to celebrate. This is no small blip on the calendar…no, this is an EVENT.

We’ve wanted to go to the ball for years but it just never worked out so that we could attend, so this year we planned ahead. In January, Ben purchased the tickets and the hotel suite. In March, he ordered his custom dress blues and I shopped online for ball gowns but couldn’t decide which one I wanted. I made sure his sword was still in it’s case, polished and the scabbard unscuffed. His cover (his white dress hat for those of you who don’t know the terminology) fit perfectly and he had his white dress gloves. He made sure he had almost all of his medals and ribbons (although he’s still missing a few…long story for another post) and as we got closer to the date we both got more and more excited.

Then life happened.

A slow and steady stream of things began to creep in and take precedence over everything else and the checklist of remaining final things that needed to be done to prepare for the ball were quickly put on the back burner and all but forgotten….until last night that is. We went to our monthly MCL meeting and suddenly realized that we had COMPLETELY forgotten the ball was THIS weekend….Friday night to be exact. Immediately we realized the conflict it posed for the wake and funeral…..the ball starts around the same time as the wake and the funeral Saturday starts at around the time we would be checking out of our room, and it is being held at one of the big resort casinos an hour away. Ok, no big deal….we decided to arrive at the ball late….it would be going for hours anyway…and then we’ll just check out extra early the next morning and make the hour long drive to arrive by 9.

We rushed home from the meeting early last night (9:15 is WAYYY early for those meetings), stopping at the drug store where I picked up a box of “professional” hair color. I haven’t come anywhere near coloring my own hair in over 10 years, but I am sooooooo past due for a visit to Gerald and there is no way he would be able to fit me in with less than 24 hours notice so I decided I would have to do it myself. (Side note: when the retail boxed color brands say “professional hair color”…they LIE….they only say that because they add as many extra steps to the process as possible thus giving you more room to screw up, not because of the great quality of the final color.)

We raced home and I immediately threw on my pj’s and proceeded to follow the 10 page (no I am NOT kidding) manual for the hair color and glop myself up as well as I could while Ben tried on his dress blues to see how much last minute tailoring they needed. Next I pulled my evening gowns out of the closet and began trying them on. We go to a lot of black tie functions so I have quite a few gowns and cocktail dresses on hand “just in case” but last night nothing worked. **sigh** ok, still not a big deal….I would have time to go to my FAVE store (insert shameless plug for Macy’s here) and get one Thursday night after work. Meanwhile as my hair marinated in phase 1 of the “pro” color, I went to check my email and relax for a little while.

Suddenly I hear, “Babe…….???” Followed by Ben’s footsteps as he came down the hall to the living room where I was sitting. I looked up to see he had on his dress blue coat, “Wow…don’t you look handsome…” I said smiling. Then he held up his arm….and I sank. The sleeves were too long….not any amount that would be workable either……no…this coat was made for a monkey apparently because that’s how long the sleeves were. I took a look at them to see if my seamstress could shorten them in time….no go. The superior quality of the dress uniform was very evident….this would be a MAJOR, heavily detailed fix…….and no way would it be possible in the short amount of time we had. **sigh**

Ok, no problem…..we can rent a tux or something……noooo, my sweet Marine wants his dress blues, and rightly so….he looked freaking good in them. **sigh**………so then and there we realized that no matter how much we planned, we had still dropped the ball (no pun intended) and it looks like we won’t be going this year either.

After the initial disappointment, we decided to go to anyway and make the best of it. Instead of going to the actual ball we’ll just go and enjoy a relaxing evening in the hotel suite, far from home and anybody who would try to reach us. A sort of mini vacation. So Ben went to bed and I stayed up until around 1am and finished my home hair salon visit……which by the time I was done made me remember VERY clearly why I don’t do my own hair. **sigh** The lovely red highlights came out blonde and the amber highlights came out strawberry blonde….at this point I may as well just GO blonde….lol. Oh well, the first thing out of Ben’s mouth this morning when he saw it was, “Hmmm….THAT’S different…it looks pretty……YOU look pretty.”

AWWWWWWWWWWW………….score one for my bear!!!

So I decided that even though things didn’t go at all as planned for this weekend….it still worked out because I’m going to get to have a few quiet and romantic hours with my prince charming and there’s NOTHING to complain about there. As far as the ball…..well, there’s always next year…..but I think next Monday I’m going to surprise my Marine with a steak dinner and a bottle of champagne. LOL.