The End of an Era

Well, I'm fast approaching my last three days of work. :) No more 4am's. I still can not even believe I woke up at that time 5 days a week for the last 15+ months. That's just sick. BUT, I'm passing on the torch and I will really miss the girls I work with and the member, too. We all went to a hole in the wall Mexican place for some food Thursday night...so yummy! They of course have 99cent margaritas and free chips and salsa. It was fun. Amy and I had to open the next morning so after staying up till 11...I was hurting. I know, I know...I am actually excited to get back into the life of being able to stay up past 8pm. It's pretty hard forcing yourself to get some sleep when there is still 90 minutes of daylight outside. Geez.

Friday was Kristina's last day. We had a fun party for everyone to come say goodbye to 'us'. Since my last day is Wednesday we combined our goodbye events. We had mini muffins, popcorn, veggies and hummus, and cherries there for our members...healthy snack fun! (we try to take every educational opportunity we can. ha ha ha). I work with a lot of gift givers, so of course I made out like a bandit! Kristina and I even got shirts from our favorite Police Officer, so now we are official. :) Ignore the 'guns'. Probably would have been more believable if we would have flexed. ha ha ha. I tell ya what, those girls are special- I'm hoping to still see them as often as possible!

So after my last day of work on Wednesday, I am coming home to pack the last of what we need for our 4 day trip to Michigan! As soon as Josh gets home from work we are taking off. We're meeting our friend Amber 3 hours into our extravaganza and hopefully getting safely into Michigan before it's insanely late. Then we will have lots and lots of fun and hold all three of our nephews....just wait for pics...I have a hard time only taking a few! Then Sunday we will drive home, Monday the 7th I go in to the hospital for all my pre-op work, then Tuesday's the big day! Please be praying for everything to go smoothly! I'm not getting nervous yet, but I am not expecting that feeling to last without God's (and your!) help! Josh shares this picture fanaticism so I'm sure you will see a bazillion hospital pics during my stay....so if you can't come visit, you can experience it with me!

Goooo Royals!

Does everyone remember our friend Will? He was in our wedding, and he's the best! So, LT William is stationed at Ft. Riley right now and his little bro Peter came to visit him from Oregon. We LOVE living by the airport- it means we get to see people more often! So we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings (they don't have those in Oregon) and had lots of fun. What could make those boys happier!? Such fun! Will and Peter arrived before Josh got home from work, Will was still in his uniform, too. I should have taken a pic, but didn't. Maybe today. :) So Josh, being the best buddy that he is, loaned Will some clothes. Doesn't he look great? Only a true friends loans you everything you need from head to toe and then lets you wear it home. Actually, Will is coming back tonight when he drops his bro off at the airport and we are going to eat my famous Mexican wonder. I have to get crackin on it soon, but first....

Saturday we went to the Royals game with some friends. A girl I work with planned the whole event and it was super super fun. Everyone brought just a little and we ended up having quite the smorgasbord. Schmoregas-board...oh geez. One word?! Anyhoo, it was fun. My friend Linsey came with, too! The weather was perfect and we enjoyed chips and salsa, 'salmon' patee, veggie salad, veggies and ranch, shrimp kabobs, burgers and fixings, beer, sangria (SO GOOD....basically grape wine with fruit in it. Gwen made it with apple, grapefruit, and something else....strawberries maybe?! It was excellent). And of course we brought M&M's. There were lemon bars and chocolate chip cookies, too. Oh yeah, and fruit salad. Very yummy. Well, it was my first professional baseball game. The Royals won! That's always a landmark event sadly. Look at that freakishly ginormous screen. Geez Louise.

But it was exciting to see Alex Gordon play again. Josh and I wish to take this moment and recognize the city of Kansas City for their overwhelming support of bad franchises, we actually mean that in a good way. I've now been to a Chiefs game and a Royals game and they are both not good. But I had a lot of fun at both of them! :) They have a great fan base...people show up and are crazy and make the events really fun! That stadium was definitely packed. Too bad I wasn't one of the first 20,000 people, I could have gotten my very own Alex Gordon bobblehead. I don't think I would sleep at night if there was an anybody bobblehead in my house. Those things are freaky. BUT I've loved my professional sports experiences so far. ((College is still by FAR my favorite)). We will probably go to more games this summer after I don't have to wake up at 4am. 7 more days of work!

Josh is doing a great job of taking care of his head this summer. Like the hat? It's a loaner. Thanks Mark! Doesn't he look cute! : )

Here's a pic of Kristina and Phillip...there were 12 of us total, but Kristina is who I work with...well, until Friday (her last day). Oh boy she's fun. Phillip is in dental school here in KC. Turns out, I'm related to a dentist, so I can know more about what he's talking about when it comes to dental school experiences. Thanks Pi!

TIRED!

Boy. We had quite the weekend. Actually most of the photographed action was on Friday so we'll start there!

We had another farewell dinner for Josh's Battalion Commander. Mexican food. It was ok. We were required to bring a dessert. So we brought Josh's favorite dessert. :) Yes, that is a 13x9 pan of assorted M&M's. Peanut, Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate, and Regular. :)


We left a few minutes early to head back to Platte City, pack our bags, and jump back in the car to drive to Lee's Summit. Josh and Todd ran 'Night Flight' a 5K (3.1 miles) road race, at night! We got there very early...but there was lots of time for pictures and stretching. ha ha ha ha. Liz and I had a great time chatting and people watching. All the runners had to wear a glo-bracelet since it was dark when they raced...both Todd and Josh's were pink. Very stunning.

The both ran great! Josh finished 20th overall with a time of 20:30 and Todd finished right at 24:00 minutes. DANG! Liz and I had fun cheering. We walked down the course a big to where we would be able to see them twice. Apparently not many runner brought a fan club cause we were alone out there except for the event staff. Well, we're just hanging out waiting for the racers to get to us, and we hear the two staff people talking. "Here they come, now where's that bald guy we thought would be out in front....oh there he is"....And here comes Josh. Ha ha ha ha. So, moral of the story is, if you're going to run in your Army PT's you'd better bring your A-game. BUT, even more so if you are a bald army man. You are expected to dominate. There was a cross-country team running...a whole flock of 140 pound tall guys in itty-bitty shorts, no shirts, and then Josh. :) I think I'll try to get him talked into those shorts for his next race. ha ha ha ha.

Then we waited for the awards ceremony which took FOREVER, it didn't happen till about 2 hours after the race, and........ Josh got 2nd in his age bracket! Apparently there was one 25 year old skinny kid...didn't look 25 to me. But hey, who am I to say someone doesn't look their age.

Then, Saturday morning, Todd and Liz left bright and early to go to the Phillies/Cardinals game in St. Louis. So Josh and I washed the car, played with Toby, and played Tiger Woods Golf on PS3. Then we went shopping and out to supper with Ashley and Mike. Then Sunday we played more golf, played with Toby, and when Todd and Liz got back, we grabbed some food and headed back to the Platte. We had a great time with Todd and Liz, talking all about their baby on the way!!! :) WHOO HOO!


What a fun weekend!

Fire up the GRILL!

We got reason to celebrate! My open heart surgery is JULY 8th! This is pretty perfect (thanks God!) because that means I can work next week during our sweet fun Annual Electronic Biathlon, I can still go to the Royals game on the 21st with friends, I can still go to Michigan for the 4th of July and hold lots of babies, and I only have 2 1/2ish weeks of work left! <-talk about your caketopper.

We need some more pictures...we'll take some this weekend since we have fun plans. But in the mean time. Enjoy my hot husband in his uniform. Isn't he cute? And a sweaty picture of us after a work out. :)

Oooo. I forgot. If you are interested in reading up on my surgery...check out this link. It's from a hospital in Texas...but it's a very similar set of events in any hospital! :)

http://www.texaschildrens.org/CareCenters/Heart/surgery/day_of_surgery.aspx

Typical

They never called. I talked to the scheduling lady at 10am. She said she would get everything figured out and call me back. Still waiting.

Sooooooo, I'll have more to report Monday.

Yesterday was Org Day for Josh's Battalion. Organizational Day is mainly just like a huge picnic with a huge competition between different companies (5 of them) in many different sports/activities (flag football, softball ((too muddy they didn't get to play)), volleyball, horseshoes, 3 0n 3 basketball, and everyone's favorite...tug of war). So there are little mini tournaments going on everywhere between soldiers and occasionally a family member ((extremely rarely)). It's pretty much mandatory family fun day. With like 700 people. But it's alright. So I sat in a lawn chair from spot to spot and chatted with the 3 spouses I kind of 'know'. The food was delish. The cake was not, Josh had seconds, and he didn't even like firsts. ha ha ha.

Josh spent his morning hitting golf balls while I was at work and then played in the championship flag football game after lunch. His company won 5 events....football, volleyball, and tug of war...so they went home with three baby trophies for individual events and then the mother trophy for overall.... :)

Both Josh and I were a bit crispy in places that didn't get four helpings of sunscreen from 10am-4pm. My neck, Josh's nose ((just his nose)), and my hands, and about two inches on Josh's triceps. He has a farmer's tan that could take home any trophy. ha ha ha.

Whelp. Tonight we have another fair well dinner for one of Josh's commanders...actually it's for the commandant of the USDB (the prison). So that will be fun. He's a great guy so we're actually excited to go to it.

We'll keep you posted!

New News

Well, I went to the cardiologist today to finalize things about the upcoming surgery. We made our final choices on what kind of procedure we want (that takes forever to explain so if you're really interested, ask and I can tell you). So now we wait till Friday. Each Friday morning all the pediatric/congenital heart defect cardiologist specialists and surgeons meet for breakfast to discuss patients. This week I will be officially presented and a surgeon will be selected. Then they call me and tell me, then I call scheduling and schedule myself with that surgeon.

Sounds fool proof. I just hope everyone that needs to be there Friday will be. When I was trying to get my heart cath scheduled it took forever because Drs kept getting sick and missing it. SO, hopefully everyone is healthy and on top of their game so that we can get this party started!

More info to come.... :)