August 15, 2011
Bingo, Root Beer barrels and cakes
Yesterday was my hometown parish’s annual Saints Peter and Paul Fall Festival. It was another beautiful day for the event. I don’t think I have ever missed it. It almost seems like that would be a sin to miss it. Mike, Danielle and I dropped off the cake, pies and tickets early in the morning. Nancy, Greg and Dylan came up and we all (except Mike) went back up to play some games and try and win some stuff and of course stand in line for the awesome dinner. First stop, sucker pull for cakes, if your sucker has a pink bottom you win! I think we spent about $40 to win a cake, well actually 2 cakes and tons of Dumb-Dumb suckers. We didn’t have good luck this year but next year we have a strategy. Next we tried our luck on Roll out the Barrel (root beer barrels wrapped in aluminum foil, get a number you win). Didn’t really have any luck there either. After that Danielle, Eric and I stood in line for the awesome take out dinner. We saw the usually suspects in line, my friend Sandy; my classmate, Tracy, former co-worker Jane etc… We usually do take out because the dinners are so huge we share them. After devouring our dinners at Mom’s house it’s time to go back up for the Bingo. (if you’re counting this is my third trip to the festival so far). 3 hours of Bingo. I get sick of it but my mom sits there for the entire time. We had to laugh yesterday she was playing her Bingo card AND doing pull tabs. She didn’t win at Bingo but she won over $25 on pull tabs. I on the other hand won Bingo. Woot Woot $33!! Greg, Nancy’s boyfriend, was very lucky on the Roll out the Barrel. He won a bike! Apparently, Nancy needed a new bike too! Sweet! Eric got his annual strawberry shake from the dairy booth and we had our annual popcorn. Like I said we have this event down pat. After bingo we went back to Mom’s to pack our stuff, including our 2 cakes and Dumb-Dumb suckers, and head back to the festival for the Polka dance. (that would be 4 trips to the festival). It is such a busy day, but so much fun. Next year, Eric and I are going to take Monday off so we can stay for the entire Polka dance and drawings. It is seriously an all day affair from 8am with dropping off pies to 9pm the end of the dance and drawing.
Also this weekend, Friday was a cook out at Mike’s house. Mom’s sisters, Grace and Bev, came down. That was fun. Best sweet corn, yum! Saturday we played cards ALL DAY and then I had my class reunion. It was ok. Not that exciting. The food was good though.
Update on Eric: He is back to eating normal again. He hasn’t taken any pain meds since leaving the hospital and overall isn’t in any pain. He bounced back quickly. He actually went to work on Friday! Still can’t lift for 3 more weeks.
August 9, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
He's home! He's Home!!!
He's home! He's Home!!! Eric was discharged at a little past 4:00 pm today. Yippee! It is so nice to be home again. We've upgraded his food to oatmeal and milk. He is feeling pretty good. He hasn't had to have any pain meds. He is lounging around, watching TV.
August 9, 2011
Green Gorilla
So far so good today. Eric hasn't had any pain meds since I last wrote. He had a restful night; they left him alone all night. Today he finally had some tomato soup and pudding. He has started on more solid food, moving away from just liquids. We did a bunch of walking too. Eric found a friend on one of our walks...the giant green gorilla. Somebody brought him out of the Family Lounge into the hallway. This is the same gorilla that became Evelyn's enemy the night before. Greg, Celeste and Evelyn came to visit last night. They brought me some Chips Ahoy! because the night before i was craving chocolate chip cookies. I ate over half of the bag already. Ugh...there goes the diet. There really isn't much for me to do here except sit, watch TV, surf the internet and eat. Hopefully we get out of here soon.
August 8, 2011
Ambulance Ride
Well Eric had been feeling fine this morning with no pain. At 10:00 we went to Abbott Northwestern in an ambulance for his ERCP. He was in good spirits when we were going over there and before the surgery with no pain. The procedure was very short, only about 40 minutes. And they got the stones out so he should be good. But the procedure put him on his belly where all his incisions are located. So he came back very sore. During the procedure I went to the ncafeteria for some lunch. The cafeteria at this large hospital was a Mc Donald's...Seriously???? That is crazy. So much for healthy eating. We got another ride back to St. Francis in Shakopee for the evening. The driver of the ambulance used to be in upper management with Aliana and worked part time as an paramedic. He left his upper managment job to be a full time paramedic. He said he hated all the BS and wanted to do something else. Anyways, Eric still has pain and it is starting to get worse. They have given him two doses of morphine and it isn't helping. The nurse said that if doesn't get better he would have to call the doctor. Not cool. Hopefully he will feel better soon. It looks like he is napping hopefully that is a good sign.
August 7, 2011
Eric's Episode
Yesterday's awesome day was followed by today...a not so awesome day. At about 2am I woke up and Eric wasn't in bed. I went down stairs and he was sitting the coach, not feeling so good. He told me to go back to bed. At 3:30am he woke me up and said I had to take him to the ER. So to the hospital we go, thank GOD we have an ER/Hospital in Shakopee. So they pumped him full of antibiotics and morphine. They did an ultrasound and drew some blood. Long story short he was suffering from gallstones, inflamed gallbladder and pancreatitis. They admitted him into the hospital with intention of emergency surgery first thing this morning. So by 11am he was on the operating table. It was so lonely in the waiting room. The area is so dead as there aren't many surgeries on the weekends so I was the only there. I also didn't bring the most appropriate reading material. I'm reading Anderson Cooper's book A memoir of war, disasters and survival. The chapters I was reading were about people dying, surgery in third world countries and the suffering of people. I was thinking it was rather macabre considering what was going on around me. The surgery went well, instant results. Eric pain basically vanished. He and I will have to compare our war wounds when he is all healed. Unfortunately, though, he isn't home yet. Some of the pesky gallstones escaped into his bile duct. SO, we are still in hospital for tonight as they are transporting him to Abbott in Minneapolis tomorrow for an ERCP...basically another surgery...to remove the stones that got away. As a result of that procedure, he will need to stay tomorrow night as well. So we still have some time before we are "out of the woods." I'm camping out in his room tonight at his request. I'm not sure when we'll get back to work. Hopefully they will release him Tuesday morning so I can get back Tuesday for at least a half day, but for sure by Wednesday. I'll keep it posted
August 6, 2011
A great day for a picnic
What a beautiful day for a picnic! We (Greg, Celeste, Evelyn, Eric and I) met DJ, Beth, Abbie, Ethan and Danielle at Flandrau State Park today in New Ulm, MN for a picnic. It was a great summer day and Flandrau is one of the nicest state parks in Minnesota. Among other things, the park has a nice sand bottom pool. Evelyn loves the water, by the end of the day she was walking out up to her chin with no fear!
I have gone running 2 more times since Monday night. Both times I ran all but the first 2 minutes (warm up). I'm not really a runner but I am getting faster each time I go out so that is good. Also it is getting easier for me...I never thought I'd say running 2 miles is easy. I was going to run tonight but it didn't happen. Actually I'm pretty lucky, I had my shoes on and was ready to go out the door when I changed my mind....good thing because 15 minutes later it started storming...I would have been over a mile away from home and would have been stuck in it. Phew!
I took some awesome pictures of the lightening (click here). I love storms! It was thundering pretty good too so with Shakopee Derby Days' Fireworks show at the same time as the lightening was flashing and thunder was booming made for a cool surround sound effect.
Well Eric just went up to bed. That is a sign I've stayed up way too late, he never beats me to bed. Good night all!
August 2, 2011
Celebrations!
I can’t believe it is August already. Where has the summer gone? Labor Day is only 33 days away…then the summer is gone…so depressing!
What a
busy weekend we had. Eric came downtown for lunch on Friday
for his birthday. It was so nice to see him in the middle of
the day. After lunch we walked around downtown before I made
my way back to work. Friday night we went to Houlihan’s for
dinner with
Danielle, Greg, Celeste and Evelyn. The food was
great! We also got Eric a DQ Ice Cream cake. I think he had
a good day. I gave him a Doctor Who Tardis Cookie jar that
makes the sound of the Tardis taking off whenever you shut the
lid. Very cool new toy!
Saturday morning Danielle and I woke up early to make our baked goods for Julifest, our annual festival at Church of St. Mark. Danielle made the Special K bar (her first time every attempting it) and I made an apple pie with pretty lattice top. The old ladies at church were really impressed with the pie.
Mike and
Mom came up in the late morning and Greg and Celeste came over
too. Celeste and I made Dalek cupcakes for Eric, a
continuation of Eric’s birthday. They are cute but Eric was
critiquing them…we didn’t ma
ke them perfectly! We spent the
afternoon betting on the ponies at Canterbury Park, what
fun! After that we went to the Julifest Polka Mass (brings
back memories) and then we had some food in the tent. Mom got
her favorite German potato salad. Eric and I had to work
Adult games from 8:30pm to 11pm. Sticking with the theme of
the day we did the racing horses. We made a ton of money for
the church.
Sunday we went back to Julifest for lunch and Mom and Mike went home. We spent the afternoon at Valleyfair with Danielle, enjoying the waterpark. There were a ton of Manitoba people there. After we cooled off at Valleyfair we went back to Julifest for the end of the silent auction. We won the Twin’s Scott Baker signed baseball. Awesome!
Last night we went to dinner at Wildfire for Celeste’s birthday. It was good. I really enjoyed the steak.
I decided last night at 9pm to start running again. The humidity finally lifted (for a little while) and I went on a 2.2 mile run. The shocking thing is I haven’t gone out for a fun in almost 8 months so it was amazing that I ran most of the 2.2 miles! I only walked for 4 minutes, 2 of which were my warm up. I was very happy with myself. I guess we will see if I continue this trend….
It is two months after my unfortunate accident in Montgomery, AL. I still relive it over and over again in my head. Hopefully someday I can move on. The reason I bring it up is I had the chance to drive my mom’s awesome new car this past weekend. I’m in love with it, I want one for myself.
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