Dan and Trudy

Dreams and Detours

2011-07-17T15:49:00.002-04:00

Well, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything. I think I'm ready to finally let you know what's been going on in my world.
First, let me say this. I know that what I am about to say is a very sensitive subject, and I want anyone related to this situation (or close to those who are) to realize the sensitivity, and also that I may be young, but I'm not stupid. I realize that anything that goes on the internet is fair game to everyone- and that's why what I'm about to type is the honest, factual truth. I know. I was there. And do I have the right to post this? Absolutely. This is my life afterall.

I've been married to the man of my dreams for almost 8 years. We met in college, we started dating, and about three years later, he asked me to be his wife. It was the stuff of fairy tales. He is incredibly handsome, smart, and driven. He comes from a strong, christian family. The early years of our marriage were about as blissful as any two newlyweds could expect. We hardly had two pennies to rub together, but we didn't need any money to entertain ourselves. I knew the Lord had blessed me with this wonderful man, and I was so excited for each new day of my new life and what it would bring.
I'm not going to tell you that everyday of the last 8 years was perfect, but it was perfectly imperfect. Sure, we are human, and we had our down days. I remember one night, coming home from a Ladies' Bible Study, I got a speeding ticket. It was my second in 3 months. I had also recieved a bad grade in class that night. I had also been chewed out at work from a coworker (not deservingly, mind you). I walked into our third floor apartment, in tears and sobs. I walked straight to the bedroom without saying a word and collapsed on the bed, sobbing. I felt like everything I touched went rotten. My husband quietly walked into the room, sat beside me, and held my hand. He said that whatever was wrong, we could make it right. I told him that everything was wrong, and I began to tell him about my horrible day. He listened, and then thoughtfully gave me some great advice, and held me until the tears stopped. He was the person on the other end of my see-saw. When I was down, he balanced me up, and I did vice versa for him. I believed that was a sign of a partnership- a marriage. ("Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For it they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?" Ecc. 4:9-11) There are dozens of these stories I could share with you, how he was having a bad time or I was, and the other tilted the see-saw in their favor, because we loved one another.

April 8th, 2011, my see-saw dropped me.
I was really excited about where our life together was going. I was about to graduate from Respiratory Therapy school, and I knew that I had a great chance of a job at the hospital I work at now. My salary was about to increase, and he had this amazing job doing what he loved and making good money too. I had dreams of us buying a house, travelling, enjoying our time together. We had worked so hard to get to this point, we deserved a little fun! We had already started picking out cruise packages and talking about where we would like to go.
He was sent on extremely short notice to Atlanta, GA for a week for a class. Neither of us were too happy about it, we seemed to have so little time together as it was with my school and work and his job. But we saw this as another thing that was going to come from time to time, and really, what was one week when we have the rest of our lives together? I saw this as an investment in his career, and I couldn't have been more proud of him.
He returned home to me on Friday, April 8th. I was at work, and was dying to get home to him. It had been an especially rough night at work- isn't it always that way when you really want to get out of there a little early? I finally get to race home, and open that kitchen door, and he's standing there, washing a few dishes. I jump to wrap my arms around his shoulders- I love that feeling- holding him. He takes a stand back, and looks in my eyes as deeply as when he said his wedding vows. "Trudy, we need to talk".
We sat on the couch in the living room. He began to tell me how he no longer loved me. He no longer wanted to live as a christian. He no longer wanted to live with me. He spoke as calmly and nonchalantly as if he were telling his order at a drive-thru speaker. When I gained my breath, I asked every question you are probably thinking of now- When did this start? What do you mean? What are you going to do? What can I do differently? What did I do wrong? He kept assuring me that he didn't meet anyone new, and that I didn't do anything wrong. He apologized for ruining my life, and he said that he felt like he needed to move out. He said he already had a place. That's when I started to look around me. Things were missing. The DVR and remote. His guns from the gun cabinet my father built him ten years ago. His precious computer, laptop, clothes, shoes, books. Gone. He had already moved out. My husband had already left me.

It was two months before we spoke to one another, but not because I didn't try. He answered my phone call on Father's Day. It was breif and painful. Work and the weather. We met up about two weeks later to exchange some mail one night where we talked for nearly three hours. He assured me that he was not coming home, and he didn't see himself ever loving me again. This had been coming on for five years or so, and it was just the way things were now.

Yesterday, we met again to do the mail exchange thing once more. I got to see his new car. It's nice. It appears he has the life he's always wanted- nice car, nice apartment, nice job, party friends, and no Trudy. I felt my fragile heart ripping apart as he drove away from me, to meet up with some work friends. He let me know there was no time in his life for me now- and why would there be? I'm just his wife, that he no longer has any feelings for.

Are we getting divorced? I don't know. Is he with someone else? I don't know. Am I okay? I don't think so. Some days are better than others, but then I have a day like yesterday, and I'm back to sitting on that couch (I can't wait to throw that stupid thing away), hearing the words for the first time "I don't care what you do, Trudy. I don't love you anymore".

Meanwhile, I am finishing up Respiratory Therapy school this week. I finished my last two Pass/Fail exams this past Thurs. I'm so glad, becasue failing them would have meant a year's setback on graduation! But I don't have to worry about that now. I have two more tests and I'm not concerned about them really. I should be taking my state board exams (three of them) soon.

Graduation = independence from my husband = my new (scary) life

I dont write this post to get sympathy - I know too many others who are in much worse shoes and they are so amazingly strong, I feel weak and weenie for crying over my failing marriage when they have come through so much. I dont write this to air my dirty laundry to the world- my close friends already know of this situation, and everyone else has heard of it through the gossip grapevine. That might be the biggest reason to write this actually- I'd rather you know what's going on from me, not from your granny's sister's neighbor who went to church with his aunt's brother's kid. (Side note: I don't even know his aunt's brother's kid, so that was just a hypothetical thing there- not reality). Also, if you pray, pray for us. I am not sure if our marriage can be saved at this point. He's been gone almost four months, and he made it crystal clear yesterday that he ain't coming home. I can't work on a marriage alone, so it doesn't look good. But that doesn't mean we can't come home to God. I am clinging to God's word and His people for strength right now, and I hope that my husband will do the same. Even if he doesn't, however, I pray for him nightly, that he has the opportunity to make things right, with himself, with God, with our families, and beyond. I also need prayers to handle this without malice to him or his family, to be patient for the right answers from God, and for my eyes to be opened to the paths that God wants me to follow. I feel like finishing school is one of those paths, and now I need to keep my eyes open for the next one. Also, his family, and mine, are suffering greatly in this. I can't imagine what his parents are feeling in this- I know they are hurting so bad. I don't have the words to say to make anything any better and I can't fix something I didn't break. I hope they understand this. I pray they do.

I will keep you updated on how my finals go this week, and my state boards after that, and the detour I'm travelling on.

Always,
Tru

Redneck Chemistry

2009-02-07T22:38:00.000-05:00

Redneck Chemistry Every night at work, I catch pieces of people's conversations that make me laugh, wonder and/or gag. It's just part of the whole "working with the public" thing I do. But every once in a while, I catch a piece of them that is so funny or strange, that it is blogworthy. Last night, I was fortunate enough to catch two."Nassy"About half way through my shift, there was a family of three adults sitting directly in front of my desk. Lady #1 sounded like a man, Lady #2 kept going out "for a smoke", and the man was married to one of the ladies, but it was hard to tell at times which one. Perhaps both? Who knows. The three of them decide to pass their time working on a crossword puzzle. They put all three of their heads (which equals about 15 teeth) together to solve the hard ones.Lady #1: A four letter word for "nassy".Lady #2: Did you say "nasty"?Lady #1: No, "nassy". It's spelled funny though. n-a-c-i. "Nassy".Man: That aint no word!Lady #1: Is too! Look here. See? It's in all capitol letters too. Except for that a.Man: Oh. Well I aint seen that before.Lady #2: Oh! I know what that is! I seen it somewhere before. I think it's another word for salt.Lady #1: Salt! that fits!!For you folks playing at home, that "word" was NaCl,.. which yes, is salt. It was not easy to suppress my laughter, but I did try."Granny's Angels"Later in the evening, I was walking a family of four (a set of grandparents and two granddaughters, around ages 15 & 17ish) to recovery to visit a patient. This was an interesting mix of family members because the grandparents were your typical gp's-Gramps is wearing white socks with his brown shoes under his high water pants that are really only highwaters because he has hiked them up to his nipple line. His plaid button up shirt has a fresh mustard stain.Granny is wearing navy sweatpants with orthopedic shoes and a pink tshirt that says "Granny's Angels" on it with her grandkids names embroidered on stick figures with wings. Her dentures are a little too big for her face.The granddaughters, or should I say, Granny's Angels, are sporting dyed black hair (obviously not professionally done so), black trench coats, and several assorted facial peircings. Granny cringes a little every time she looks at them in the face.As we are leaving the recovery room and I'm walking them back down to the waiting room, we pass by one of those hand sanitizer pumps, full of CalStat. CalStat is just like the hand sani gels you buy in the store, full of mostly alcohol and some hand lotion. Granny's Angels are so fascinated by the contraption, they have to stop and squirt it all over their hands and forearms.Angel #1: Woa! This stuff feels neat!Angel #2: Yeah! Smell it!Angel #1: *sniffing her hands* Awesome! It smells like the stuff they use when they peirce your face!!Granny: *noticeably cringes*

Testing

2009-02-07T22:30:00.002-05:00

Sorry, I'm trying to figure out this crazy thing. All of my posts just disappeared! Check back later to see if I have it all worked out.

Trudy

Redneck Chemistry

2009-01-30T12:40:00.003-05:00

Every night at work, I catch pieces of people's conversations that make me laugh, wonder and/or gag. It's just part of the whole "working with the public" thing I do. But every once in a while, I catch a piece of them that is so funny or strange, that it is blogworthy. Last night, I was fortunate enough to catch two.

"Nassy"
About half way through my shift, there was a family of three adults sitting directly in front of my desk. Lady #1 sounded like a man, Lady #2 kept going out "for a smoke", and the man was married to one of the ladies, but it was hard to tell at times which one. Perhaps both? Who knows. The three of them decide to pass their time working on a crossword puzzle. They put all three of their heads (which equals about 15 teeth) together to solve the hard ones.
Lady #1: A four letter word for "nassy".
Lady #2: Did you say "nasty"?
Lady #1: No, "nassy". It's spelled funny though. n-a-c-i. "Nassy".
Man: That aint no word!
Lady #1: Is too! Look here. See? It's in all capitol letters too. Except for that a.
Man: Oh. Well I aint seen that before.
Lady #2: Oh! I know what that is! I seen it somewhere before. I think it's another word for salt.
Lady #1: Salt! that fits!!
For you folks playing at home, that "word" was NaCl,.. which yes, is salt. It was not easy to suppress my laughter, but I did try.

"Granny's Angels"
Later in the evening, I was walking a family of four (a set of grandparents and two granddaughters, around ages 15 & 17ish) to recovery to visit a patient. This was an interesting mix of family members because the grandparents were your typical gp's-
Gramps is wearing white socks with his brown shoes under his high water pants that are really only highwaters because he has hiked them up to his nipple line. His plaid button up shirt has a fresh mustard stain.
Granny is wearing navy sweatpants with orthopedic shoes and a pink tshirt that says "Granny's Angels" on it with her grandkids names embroidered on stick figures with wings. Her dentures are a little too big for her face.
The granddaughters, or should I say, Granny's Angels, are sporting dyed black hair (obviously not professionally done so), black trench coats, and several assorted facial peircings. Granny cringes a little every time she looks at them in the face.
As we are leaving the recovery room and I'm walking them back down to the waiting room, we pass by one of those hand sanitizer pumps, full of CalStat. CalStat is just like the hand sani gels you buy in the store, full of mostly alcohol and some hand lotion. Granny's Angels are so fascinated by the contraption, they have to stop and squirt it all over their hands and forearms.
Angel #1: Woa! This stuff feels neat!
Angel #2: Yeah! Smell it!
Angel #1: *sniffing her hands* Awesome! It smells like the stuff they use when they peirce your face!!
Granny: *noticeably cringes*

Moose in the Snow,... and his new friend, Fred

2009-01-22T13:21:00.004-05:00

So,.. Tuesday we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. Dan still had to go to work, but seeing how I don’t go in until 3pm, I got to enjoy it with my favorite dog,… Moose.

Moose is a funny creature. He doesn’t like water, and he doesn’t like to be cold. I was pretty sure he would hate snow. It took a lot of pleading and begging, but I finally got him to come outside with me in the snow. I don’t think he liked the way it felt on his feet!

Every morning, when he goes out, he trots around the perimeter of our fence, sniffing to see what’s been in his yard during the night. Every few steps or so, he stops, smells the ground, and paws at the grass. Then he moves on. If he gets the urge, he’ll make two or three trips around the fence, just making sure he hasn’t missed anything. Tuesday was different! He ran around that fence so fast, he didn’t stop to smell anything! It was so funny how he still felt like he had to check the fence, but you could tell he was thinking “hurry up and get this over with! I wanna go back inside!”. I tried to get pictures, but he was just a blur because he was running so fast.

We spent a little time checking out the snow, and when I showed him he could eat it, he seemed to tolerate it a little more. I love this pic of him with it on his nose!! So cute!

So yesterday, I noticed Moose was in the yard, shaking something in his mouth. I walked over to see what it was, and much to my disgust, it was part of a bird. I say part, because he’d already chewed off the legs and a wing. He was so proud of it though. He laid it at my feet and looked up at me, wagging his tail like “Look Mama! Look what I got! I will call him Fred!” I just patted his head and said “Good boy!” What else can you say? I did not take a picture. No one wants to see that. Haha.

Call me Bon Qui Qui

2009-01-16T09:55:00.002-05:00

A lesson from Bon Qui Qui. She's a character on MadTV, who works at King Burger. "Welcome to King Burger, where you can have it your way, but don't get crazy!" Maybe I'm too nice at work. If I had her sass, as we'll call it, maybe I wouldn't get ran all over. Here's what I'm talking about.

Last night was one of the worst nights I've had in a long time at work. I come in at 3pm, and the person I'm releiving briefs me on who in the waiting room has been updated recently, and who needs a wheelchair when they leave, and who left their walker behind my desk, etc. She mentions that one of our guests is very angry that his pt's surgery was delayed. She said she had already given him three coupons to the restaurant in our hospital, and beyond that, there's not much we can do. Sadly, our meal coupons are our holy grail of service recovery perks. About 30 minutes after she leaves, I'm just a busy bee, answering the phone, taking down messages, meeting the doctors, when Mr. Hissyfit (HF from here on out) comes up to my desk and just stands there and stares at me. I greet him "Hey there, Sir. How are you today?" in my friendly, but sincere work voice. He says he's not doing so good- he's angry. He's been waiting since 11 for an update on his wife and no one's told him squat. I look on the record, and he had last gotten an update at 2:10. I remind him of this, and that I can't interrupt surgery unless they've not called in 2 hrs, and at 4:10, if we've not heard anything yet, I'll be happy to call back and see what I can do. Not good enough. He turns red. He starts breathing fire out of his nose (not really, but I was waiting for it), he starts shaking all over and pointing his finger at me "That's why I don't get cut on in this **** hospital! You fools don't know nothing! I hate this place!". At this point, he has the attention of the entire waiting room- all 50ish guests- and I'm totally alone. After 3pm, I am the face of admissions, preadmit testing, surgery waiting, and I am the only Patient Representative (my official title) in the entire hospital system. I have no one to back me up. I tell him that I am sorry to hear he has had such a horrible experience, and that I can see and understand his frustration. I tell him that surgery does not always run on schedule, because of emergencies (which we had a bunch of), and alot of times, even if the patient is ready, the case before theirs may run over their alotted time due to complications. There's so much in surgery that we can't control, but we do our best, and we are sorry that he had been so inconvenienced. NOT good enough. He is yelling at me so hard, and with such profanity, he is spitting as he is talking. A guest walks up to him and tells him to shut up and sit down, that he was disrespecting the other patrons. This makes him angrier. Finally, he sits down, when I tell him that I"ll call to the OR at 4:10, which it was about 4:00 then. In the mean time, I have a long line of people waiting to ask me for information, so I turn my attention to them, and a few minutes later, I see HF walking up to the desk again out of the corner of my eye. I'm thinking "Oh good grief!". I tell him "Sir, I'll be with you in a second" and turn my attention back to the rest of the line. He opens his cell phone up and shoves it in my face. I am speachless. I look at him, this time, clearly annoyed, and ask him what I can do for him and he says "Look at the time, sweetheart! Call that OR!". For the record, the time was 4:09, but I"m not going to argue that. The nice man that I was waiting on steps aside and says "Please, go ahead", so I call the OR and tell them we need an update. Then I tell him I asked for an update, and when they call me back, I'll let him know what they say. He blows up. I mean, like a crazy person. He is screaming and hollaring about "Now I have to sit here for three more hours for another **** phone call?" I was really afraid of what he was capable of, because he was clearly nuts. So I hit my panic button for security. In no time, two officers come to my rescue, and escort him out in the hall and talk to him. His testimony to them was that he only wanted to show me what time it was because he wasn't sure if I had on a watch. And he wasn't yelling- he has emphysema and that's how he talks. *Emphysema is a disease of the lungs that makes it difficult to exhale properly, which is why it is hard to breathe for these patients because if you can't exhale, you can't inhale. Exhalation is necessary to yell. I'm just saying.* Security doesn't make him leave, so after they decide all is well, they leave, and he just continues to harrass me until they finally get to talk to the doctor and they leave the hosptial. A funny note- I almost laughed at him when the officers left. He came up to me and pointed his finger at me and yelled "I don't appreciate you having me arrested!" Okay. Whatever. I wanted to ask him if the crazy old person home knew he was missing, or should I give them a call?
Mr. HF was only one of the crazy episodes from last night, but he was certainly the craziest. I noticed soemthing though- The worst in some people brings out the best in others. As I sat there, for three hours or more, getting harassed by HF, countless people who were observing this came up to me and offered to buy me a drink (i assume they meant from the vending machine. I don't drink alcohol, but i was beginning to consider it at that point. haha. not really), dinner, Krispy Kreme donuts. One little old man, with an Army Veterans hat on, offered to take HF outside and "have a word of prayer" as he put it, while he pounded his fists. Sweet thought, but I had to decline. If HF hadn't acted out, I might have never seen the compassionate side of those people, and they might have not seen the tried, but patient side of me. I keep a Bible on my desk at work, and read while waiting on phone calls when it's slow. Several people commented on how "that's why she's able to handle idiots like him- she's reading her Bible!". And they're right. I may be the only Bible these people ever see, my actions my be the only scripture they read, and they may not meet another Christian except for me, so if I had returned HF's attitude, what kind of a message would that have presented? If anything, he made me want to dig my heels in and be even more patient than is natural. A lady thanked me for my Christian example, in the way that I handled him, and I really thought about that later. It's funny how things work like that.

For the record, I'm studying James. After HF left, I was reading in chapter 2 about bridling the tongue. It will always have a whole new meaning for me. haha.

Perhaps I won't be a Bon Qui Qui afterall.

The Chronicles of Sprinkles: Dazed and Confused

2009-01-09T23:58:00.004-05:00

In my line of work, I deal with old people, alot. Mostly, with the volunteers that work at our desk. Now, not all hospital volunteers are created equal. There's Betty Spaghetti. Not really, but that's what I call her. She works with us on Tues and Thurs mornings. She's alot of fun and very smart and quick on her feet. I honestly would never think her to be as old as she is (over 80), as energetic and spunky as she is. She keeps us laughing. Alas, on Mondays and Fridays, we are blessed with the volunteer I refer to as "Sprinkles".
Sprinkles, as she puts it, is "a mess". She is believed to be in her 70's, though no one's really for sure, and she stands at a towering 5ft flat. She waddles from left to right when she walks, and has a loud, gruffy voice. She's very no nonsense, old school, and loves attention.
Sometimes, our schedule can get quite busy. In fact, last Friday was the day after a holiday. Alot of people took that day off, and this left just myself and Sprinkles to hold down the fort by ourselves. It did get a little overwhelming at times, and I can get a little impatient when I'm dealing with a guest of our hospital, and she wants to butt in and handle the situation herself, because she doesn't realize how loud and gruff she can come across to those who don't know what a considerate and sweet soul she is (deep deeeeeep down inside).
It was during one of these such hectic times on that Friday, when Sprinkles had to go to the ladies' room. She was gone for about a minute when a visitor came by my desk.
"Excuse me ma'am, there's a lady who appears to be a patient down in the lobby. I'm not sure if she knows where she is- she seems very confused. Just thought I should let someone know." I thanked her, and looked at my friend, Donna, who had just happened to walk by at that time. Donna decided since she wasn't that busy, she'd walk down and see if she could find the confused patient. (On a side note, we've had an escape artist on "the crazy floor" for a while now. She was recently spotted crossing the street, dragging her IV pole with her, going to Church's chicken- another story for another time.)
Well, as Donna begins walking away from desk, she calls back over her shoulder "Hey Trudy, did she say what this person looks like?"
I replied "No, but I'm assuming it's a geriatric, female,.. and basically any geriatric female that looks like she's dazed and confused, I'd say that's her."
About that time, Sprinkles is walking up the hallway, and about to pass by Donna.
Donna says "Found her!" and we both split our spleens laughing. Sprinkles little blue eyes were so confused as to what was so funny, but thankfully, it's very easy to get her to forget that anyone was laughing at all in about 5 minutes.
Maybe you'd have to know Sprinkles to find this funny, but I'm telling you, it was a riot.

She also said to Donna and I earlier in the day..
"Did y'all hear about that woman that gave birth to a 14 lb baby?"
"No! Wow, that's a huge baby!" we said back.
"Yeah, it took two of em doctors to pull it out of her body."
At this point, I'm thinking "Okay, that's about as far as we need to go with the details, Sprinkles", but she continues...
"If that ain't enough to make you wanna cross yer legs and shrivel up inside, I don't know what will!!"
Gag. Oh gag.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Chronicles of Sprinkles. I'm sure I'll have more to add to it next week.

I got all my sistas wit me!

2009-01-06T09:20:00.005-05:00

As some of y'all know, my younger sister, Heidi, moved to Tennessee last September. She lives in the Johnson City area, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from here. We still get to see her a good bit, but usually when she comes down, one of us has to be working or is out of town and when one of us can go up to visit her, the other one can't come for some reason. It hasn't worked out for all three of us to be together in a long time. Well, this past weekend, all of the stars aligned just right so that all three sisters were off work, Natalie was with her mom, and we did what we've been trying to do for months- Girl Party at Aunt Heidi's!!!Lavinia and I left Boiling Springs on Saturday afternoon and she drove us up to Johnson City. We got to Aunt Heidi’s and got the grand tour of her apartment. Then we met Heidi’s man, Paul, at Carino’s for a fabulous dinner! If you are ever there, get the Italian Chili. It’s not on the menu anymore, but they still make it. You just have to ask for it. Delicioso! (okay, so I know that’s spanish and not italian, but whatever).
After dinner, we stopped at Starbucks, and spent Lavinia’s giftcard. My favorite thing here is the Raspberry Steamer. It’s basically steamed milk and cream, with raspberry syrup added to it. Awesome. Again, not on the menu, you have to ask for it. What is it with me and non-menu items? Who knew I was so difficult! (Dan- do NOT answer that! haha).
Then it was back to Heidi’s for video games, junk food and movies. And now I have to brag on Heidi’s boyfriend for a minute. He knew how much we had all three been looking forward to this, and he is remodeling his house anyway, so after dinner, he said goodnight and went to work at his house, leaving us to be silly girls all night by ourselves. Well, about an hour after we got home, he called Heidi and said he was on his way over to drop something off. He brought a ton of cushions from his house for us to lie on (Heidi doesn’t have much in the way of furniture yet), and a ton of junk foods and drinks from the store. How thoughtful is that? And then he said goodnight again and left to go repair a toilet. Okay, bragging time is over. Back to the girl’s night…
We watched The Holiday (I LOVE this movie!!) and ate junk food and acted like silly girls, which Natalie absolutely loved. Then Sunday morning around 3am, we all woke up to a train whistle. None of us could go back to sleep, so we just sat around the floor, looking at old pictures, and laughing. It was great.

So, Sunday morning, I’m helping Natalie get ready for church. She hates pantyhose, but it was pretty cold, so she had to wear them. Somehow, we got on the subject of Heaven. This is how it went…
Natalie: Aunt Choody, what’s Heaven gonna be like?
Trudy: Well, Noodle, the Bible says the streets are going to be made of gold. And we won’t need a sunshine anymore.
Natalie: Is it raining in Heaven?
Trudy: Nope, you don’t need rain in Heaven either. Jesus will be our light, so that’s why we won’t need a sunshine. And there won’t be any pain, or sadness, or crying either.
Natalie: Everyone’s always happy?
Trudy: Always! And there isn’t anything that’s not fun there. Like homework, or bedtimes, or even pantyhose!
Natalie: *gasp* Are we gonna be naked?!
Oh she is so funny. I did what any good aunt would do. I told her to ask her mom! Because if I said yes, then she would be worried about being naked in Heaven. But truthfully, we won’t need the clothes, because we won’t be in earthly bodies, so I couldn’t lie to her, but she wouldn’t understand the whole earthly body thing either. So I just passed it off to Lavinia. Whew.

(that's root beer by the way)

Then the conversation picked back up when I was brushing her hair.
Trudy: Did you know that God knows how many hairs on your head?
Natalie: On MY head?
Trudy: Well, He knows how many hairs are on everyone’s heads. There are millions of people in the whole world, and He knows all of their names. And all of those people have thousands of hairs on their heads…
Natalie: Except Grandpa.
Trudy: Yes. Except Grandpa.
Heidi: *laughing* Yeah, Noodle, Grandpa has more like tens of hairs.

Well, after church, we ate at Heidi’s favorite sandwich place- Cootie Brown’s. Then the girls went to the mall for a few minutes before Heidi had to go to work. They had one of those bungee jumping things, so we convinced Nat to get on it. She was scared at first, but she loved it once she tried it. She kept asking to go back and do it again.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's NATALIE!!

Then it was time to say goodbye, and drive back to SC. We made it home safe and sound and veerrrrry sleepy!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2008-12-30T11:24:00.009-05:00

No,.. I didn't get my timing off when I titled this post.

The presents are all opened, the decorations are coming down, and the radio has FINALLY stopped playing non-stop Christmas carols,... Christmas is officially over!! And I for one couldn't be happier! I am somewhat of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas- well, only partially. I love getting together with family, and I even enjoy the decorations and of course, the food. It just seems like every year I get less and less enthusiastic about trying to please everyone and go to every party and find the perfect gift for everyone on my list. Anyway,.. it's great to see the holidays come,.. and it's great to see them go!

This year, we did have a good Christmas, despite all of the insanity that comes along with my family. My sister is divorced, and she has a daughter who is seven, and is the light of our lives. Her ex-husband has a cactus growing where his heart used to be, so custody of Natalie through the holidays is always a challenge. It was very difficult to find a time when we could get the family together AND have Natalie all at the same time, but we managed.
Despite her prickly father, she had the best Christmas of her life this year. She got the ultimate Christmas present from her mom- a puppy! His name is "Cricket", and he's a lab mix that she found at a rescue shelter. He looks alot like the dog from Marley & Me. Natalie is in love with him, and when she woke up to him licking her face the day after Christmas, she smiled and said "It wasn't a dream!". How cute is that?!

What did Aunt Choody get Noodle (her nickname) for Christmas? I made her a quilt. It has little puppies all over it and it's chenille fabric on the bottom,.. lightweight, but very very warm. I trimmed the edges with satin. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. So was she!

On Monday before Christmas, we got a call that Dan's grandfather, Walter Elbert Ingram, passed away. He had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for a very long time, and in the past 6 months, he became increasingly sick. He had a really good day a week before Christmas, but then that Friday, he took a drastic turn for the worse, and was gone by Monday afternoon. We thank you for your prayers and thoughts on this. It certainly did put a damper on the holidays, but it also worked out that we were going to Montgomery anyway, so we were able to be there for the funeral and all.

On a lighter note, we got some awesome news over the holidays,... no- I'm not pregnant. Dan's cousin is getting married!! She's going to be such a beautiful bride! I can't wait- Mrs. Ingram and I are going to plan a really special shower for her. I love doing stuff like that. And I get to be a bridesmaid. I'm so honored to be a part of her special day. It'll be in August 2009, so we have a while to look forward to it (and a while for me to fit into a dress!).

Yesterday, Monday, was my last day off for the holidays. I went to Hendersonville, NC with my mom, Lavinia and Natalie, and my mom's cousin Catherine, and her daughters, Caroline and Jenny. We had a blast. We went shopping at my favorite store, the wrinkled egg. I got some cute things for around the house (all springtime stuff- I've got spring fever bad!), and all things that I think I could make myself. I love being crafty (you're laughing outloud right now, aren't you CL?) and I always get inspired when I go to this particular store. I have already gotten started on a few little projects, so pictures will follow that soon. This is a pic of Natalie and her cousin, Jenny, playing checkers at Cracker Barrell in Hendersonville, NC.

Well,.. I'm sure I'll think of other stuff to post later. I hope you are all having a great week and have a wonderful and safe New Year's!!
Love,
Trudy :)

VIPs in the ER

2008-12-12T10:56:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone!! I hope you are all doing great. Dan and are doing fine,.. I'm getting over a terrible virus that has been going around at the hospital like crazy. I'm thinking Dan should be the one applying to the medical field- he makes a great nurse!
Wednesday morning,.. around 2am, I woke up feeling nauseated and my stomach hurting. I thought "Oh, it's something I ate, I'll be fine,.. go back to sleep". Well, I couldn't sleep. It got worse and worse until about 4:30, I had to make a run to the bathroom. I was so sick. I spent the next 3 hours going from bed to bathroom at least TEN TIMES. And each time left me weaker and more sore, and the nausea never really went away. Bless Dan's heart. He was with me every second,.. giving me cold washcloths, rubbing my feet, tucking back in bed, pulling me up out of bed, etc. Now, about 6 wks into our marriage (5 yrs ago almost to the exact day), I got the flu and was seriously sick for about 2 wks. I mean,.. bad! Real bad. I got so dehydrated and disoriented, Dan says I watched all three original episodes of Star Wars and laughed my head off. I do'nt remember that at all. I ended up in the ER then at like 1am getting a bag of fluids and a phenergan shot to make it stop. I didn't want to wait that long again. So I called my doctor, but she didn't have an opening until late in the morning and by now it was about 7:30am. So we decided it was best to go on to the ER.
Now, going to the ER for me and going to the ER for some people is not exactly the same. I work at this hospital. Imagine walking into your place of employment, desperately needing a shower, drenched in sweat, puking, and in dirty pj's. Nice, right? Well, I didn't care,... much. We got there and they checked my vitals and told us to wait for a room. The nurse said they were packed. It was so hard to sit in a chair, being so sick. I ended up putting my pillow in my lap, and bending over so my head was resting on my knees. Horrible. I heard the nurse tell another patient that since they had been there over an hour, he was going to go ahead and recheck their vitals. I knew we would be waiting a long time.
Well, just about that time, I felt like I was going to be sick again (afterall,.. it had only been 20 minutes since the last one) so I walk to the bathroom and as I am (you know- let's not be graphic), Dan comes in and says "Baby, they have a room for you". I am thinking "If that nurse wants to recheck my vitals, he can wait, I'm kinda busy!". Dan said "A real room,.. and ER room, not in Triage." Wow!! I finish my thing and he walks me over to the room and I am thinking "How on earth did we get in a room ahead of all these people?" Then I figure it out. I see Bridget, my co-worker, standing in the room. She helped Dan put me in the bed and take off my shoes. Then the ER Charge nurse comes in, and explains everything, and they get my IV started and give me some Zofran (like phenergan,.. but worked even faster!). It was like being a VIP. I know she had to pull some strings to get me in that fast and then to get the treatment we did,.. it was just amazing! I was so glad to see her! Just goes to show that it's nice to know people in sick places! The doc came in very shortly after, explained that she had seen alot of this virus from hospital employees over the past week, and that I would be better in a few days. They were just awesome. They let me sleep while the IV ran,.. and I am pretty sure that I know how Popeye feels when he eats spinach now. I wasn't exactly Wonder Woman when I left there, but I was actually walking on my own and I wasn't sick to my stomach, which was awesome!
Well, the doc gave us some Zofran to take home with us,.. so we stopped by the pharmacy in the hosptial to get it filled. When it was ready, we walked back to the ER to get the car, but this cop stopped us. He said there was a tornado warning and we couldn't leave. Dan said "She's sick and we just want to get her home", he said "Yeah, but you're not leaving right now. Go back inside and wait." Grrrrr. We had to wait another 20- 25 minutes before they would release us. In the meantime, this scary man (who appeared to be intoxicated) kept asking me for my phone and cussing and stomping his foot when I told him no. If I wasn't so sick, I probably would have been scared. Dan said "I think I'd rather take my chances with the tornado in the parking lot, than be in here with him!" Fortunately, it wasn't long before they let us go home.
My amazing husband had been up since about 3 with me,.. took care of me,.. worried about me,.. drove me to the ER and went through that whole ordeal with me,.. got me home and cleaned up and in the bed and made sure I had some water to drink and some crackers if I felt like it,.. and then went to work himself. I can't believe how amazing he is. He is very unselfish and a great husband. Now I'm trying to think of a really great surprise for him, to show him how much I appreciate him. And I am praying he doesn't get it!! Speaking of germs, I'm going to go finish decontaminating my house now.

2008-12-08T14:03:00.002-05:00

What?! Two blogs in the same day?! haha. This one will be quick. Our friends at church recently had a baby girl in November. Last night, David came up to Dan and just handed him the baby. Dan wasn't real sure what to do with it, but once he had her, no one would take her from him, so he was stuck holding her. Of course, we ALL wanted to hold the baby, but it was just so funny to see Dan holding a tiny baby and not having a clue what to do with her!! I took a picture, against his wishes, and this is it. Doesn't my husband look good with a baby in his arms?

Have a Happy Scrappy Christmas!!

2008-12-08T13:13:00.008-05:00

So this year, I decided to be a big ol' scrooge, and NOT PUT UP MY CHRISTMAS TREE!!! (insert collective gasp here) This is the way I see it. It's huge,.. and heavy,.. and while it is beautiful while it is up and lit and all decorated, everytime I walk by it, I'm thinking "Wow, it's gonna be a big pain to put that thing away!". There, I said it. And besides, we haven't spent a single Christmas at home since we've been DATING!! Count them,.. 8 years! So why go through it all, if I"m not even home to enjoy it? Now, I did want to have a little holiday spirit in the house to enjoy for the time leading up to Christmas, but I wanted it to be simple, no fuss, and easy to put away. Here are my homemade Christmas decorations! I made them all from scrap fabric I had in my closet, scrap buttons, scrap thread,.. all scraps!

(The single stocking is Moose's. Ours are still in the attic. We'll get them down eventually. The stockings weren't homemade, but the stars and tree are).

Fun with Picnik.com

2008-11-22T02:07:00.008-05:00

Adventures from Surgery Waiting

2008-11-21T23:17:00.003-05:00

Okay, I realize that I've been kind of a party pooper lately when it comes to my postings. Even now, I could write a book on new troubles that have fallen on my family just this past week, and believe me, each one seems to be worse than the one before it. However, I have got to think positive, or else, I will simply go nuts. I think the big thing that's gotten me through this week is knowing a) God is in control, and there is a reason for all of this. A really good one. I'm sure of it, b) My family has become one of those Chinese Handcuffs. You know, the toy that is a little sleeve and you put your fingers in either end, and the harder you pull, the more they are held together by the handcuffs? Well, you could call us the Holder-Chinese-Handcuffs. Not so much, because we aren't Chinese, but you get the picture, and c) Next week! I get a few days off of work, away from here, and surrounded by Christians that truly uplift me. Dan's family is super fantastic, and they are as excited about us going down there as I am. And I get to hang out with Carol Leah, my old college roomie, and relive happier times.
Speaking of happier times, I thought I would put up a post about some of the more absurd strange things I come across in my job.

Baby Mama and B-Knuckles
It was probably two weeks ago tonight that I got a family come into the waiting room, probably about 20 - 25 of them, right around 8:30pm. I check them in, and then go back to reading, when the cat fight broke out. They weren't throwing fists, yet, but they were about to. Girl A, whom we will call "Baby Mama", was about 15 yrs old and looked to be about 12 months pregnant. Girl B, whom we will call "Brass Knuckles" because I'd bet you a dollar she had some, was in her thirties, and her pajamas. The family starts to simmer down, and most of them are sitting with their eyes focussed on the floor, appearing to be either deep in thought, or not in thought at all. Brass Knuckles starts mumbling about "It's all her fault. She be messin' around wif the who' hood, makin da boys all crazies, and den deys starts ta fightin'. If she wun't messin, he wouldn't a got shot!" Baby Mama looks up at her "I know you ain't talkin bout me, &$%@! You talkin bout me? It ain' my fault dem boys can't be actin' like men!". The neck jerking and finger snapping began, and luckily, one of the larger, and possibly wiser, members of the group decides to take B-Knuckles out for some fresh nicotene. I was so glad I was getting off. I did call security though, to do a little walk through and make sure that Baby Mama and B-Knuck didn't start killing each other. Where do you suppose these people come from?

My Friend Snake
This one is one of my favorites. One night, my friend Marion had come to relieve me for a dinner break (I really miss her! haha). I left the desk for about 15 mins, and when I came back, there was a couple walking away from the desk, and Marion's face was red from holding back laughter. The husband looked like an extra from the movie "Deliverence", and his (I assume) wife looked like she been teasing her peroxide blonde hair when she should have been brushing her teeth, for the past 10 yrs or so. They were probably in their 40's, looked to be about 60, and she was probably still wearing the makeup she had on at her Senior High Prom. (I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to paint a vivid picture). So I ask Marion what they wanted, and she said the lady asked her for a patient's room number. The conversation went like this:
Tammy Faye: "Yes, my vurry best frand is in the horspital. Kin you tell me his room number?"
Marion: "Let me look that up for you. What is his last name?"
Tammy Faye: "Uh, I don't know his last name. He got cancer."
Marion: "Okay, what is his first name, and I can see if any of our Cancer Center patients match it."
Tammy Faye: *pauses* "I don't know his first name either. He's my vurry best frand though. Maybe it's Robert? Or Ronald?"
Marion: *trying to be professional* "Well, Ma'am, I can't give you a room number without his name. You're gonna have to tell me who to look up."
Tammy Faye: "Oh, well, we call him Snake. Would it be under Snake?"
Marion: *blinks speechlessly*
Tammy Faye: *calls someone on her cell phone; Mr. Deliverence appears to be fascinated by an ink pen* "Ricky? Is this Ricky? Hey, git Bubba on the phone,... Bubba? That you? We're here at the horspital. What's Snake's name? Aight." *hangs up and looks at Marion* "It's Timothy."
Not even close.

I'll post more as I think of them. They all start blurring together after a while!
Goodnight!
Trudy

2008-11-09T01:52:00.014-05:00

I saw this link on Rick's blog a while back, and was bored tonight, so I looked it up. Dan and I laughed so hard it hurt! Here are a few good ones. See if you can pick out which one is my favorite. Enjoy!!!

PS... ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!!

Thank You...

2008-11-02T01:34:00.002-04:00

... to all who prayed for me and my family (see previous post). I love you all and am so thankful that God has given us the avenue of prayer not just for ourselves, but to lift one another up in prayer also. He is so wise! Things seem to be settled and all good for now. I hate to say that part,.. "for now",.. but I have just learned over the past few years that when things are good, it seems like the devil is just giving you a breather before throwing something else at you. I am not usually this pessimistic, and I am certainly not blind to my blessings. Of the blessings I have been given is a wonderful family who loves and cares for me and I for them- and because I love them, I hurt when they hurt. But like I said, the shadows have given way to sunlight for now and all is well on the homefront at the moment. This past week has had some serious blessings, and I am certain that has alot to do with the prayers of my friends. Thank you!

2008-10-28T11:02:00.002-04:00

WARNING: This blog probably won't make sense. It's really for my own benefit. Isn't that the whole point in having your own blog anyway?

If there is a purpose to this blog, it's a request of prayer. My family's lives have been a living nightmare over the past two years, with breif moments of laughs and happiness in between. It reminds me of driving through one of those curvy mountain roads that I love so much on a sunny day. The sunroof is open, the sun is out, but the road is so shaded by the overhanging trees that your eyes can't help but blink at the unfamiliarity of the brightness of the sunlight when the shadows part. You can't stop and enjoy the sunlight, there's too many curves ahead- a dead possum in the road, someone whizzes by you going way too fast, watch out for that stray cat, etc- all under continuous shadows along your journey. Over the past week or so, I've been blessed to be able to slow down on that curvy road. The curves were still there, but softer; the shadows were there, but driving slower, I could appreciate the sun breaking through them more. It seemed as if I was getting used to the sunlight more. Less blinking and apprehension when it came; less wondering "this is nice, but where's the next shadow?". Until this morning.
My treelined road has taken a turn into a tunnel.
It's really dark in here.
I'm okay,.. I'm still driving my car. But someone I love is driving theirs really close to mine, and they need help. I'm not sure I can manage my steering wheel and hers too. Not without someone getting hurt along the way.
As of right now, I can't see light at the end of this tunnel. We're probably going to be in this curve for a little while longer. I don't know where this road is going to lead us, or her, or them.
It's amazing how much your life can change in ten minutes.

It's gonna be a GREAT day!

2008-10-03T09:36:00.002-04:00

This is just a quick blog, mainly for my own benefit, to organize my thoughts about today. I've been working really hard on the house all week, so it would be spic'n'span clean by the weekend. Why? Do we have company coming? A special event? No. I just wanted to be able to enjoy my weekend without feeling like "man, instead of lounging around with Dan, I should be doing the dishes/laundry/vaccuumming/etc". And since my house is RARELY ever clean from top to bottom, I'm excited that now the weekend is here for me to enjoy it and relax. (CL can vouch for what a neat freak I'm not- I think she's the only one out there who's actually lived with me before- I should send her a card! haha).
Another great thing about today is a surprise I'm planning for Dan. I started thinking about it earlier in the week. As much as I love the fact that I can have a carefree weekend with no chores to HAVE to do, wouldn't it be nice if he could have the same? His really only big chore is the yardwork, and he refuses to let me touch his lawnmower. I think it's a man thing- if I cut the grass, then that's one more thing I'm responsible for and he doesn't want me to do his chores. So,.. I called a lawn maintenance guy yesterday. He's coming over in half an hour to look at the yard and if the price is right, he'll take care of the whole thing. What a big surprise for when Dan comes home tonight! The yardwork is done! All of it! I can't wait to see his face!
I'm also looking forward to hanging with my dog while the yard is being done. My friend came over yesterday for a visit, and she's AWESOME with training dogs. So she showed me a few pointers with Moose that might help relieve some of his nervous energy. I'm waiting until yard man comes to take him for a walk, so he'll be out of their hair while they are working, and we can practice some things we learned yesterday. Good exercise for him AND me!
And just when you thought it couldn't get any better,.. my boss just left me a voicemessage that she needs me to come in early today!! That means I get OFF early tonight! I love it when that happens!
(and the icing on the cake? today's pay day!)
I know that days like today can only mean one thing- I am a truly blessed child of God! He is so good!
I hope you all have as great of a day as I am sure to have and I love you all!

2008-09-22T10:57:00.002-04:00

This is what Dan and I did this weekend....
Friday:
I had to work late on Friday. It was ridiculous. Not the working late part,.. because I always work kinda late- it's kinda what I do. But it was just one of those ridiculous days that never seemed like it was going to end! I was completely stressed to the max and ready to pull my hair out by the end of it. So I get home around 9:30ish, and thankfully, I had already started dinner in the crock pot. One of my favorites!
Mexican Crock Pot Chicken
1 package of boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
1/2 jar of whatever salsa you like (if you get medium, it will be mild after it cooks)
1 handful of shredded cheese
Throw it all in the crock pot; cook on low until chicken is done; serve over instant rice. Voila!

Saturday:
Saturday was amazing. It was probably the best day I've had in a very long time. We slept in a little, and then went outside to play with Moose a little. Then we grabbed a bite to eat on the way to Maggie Valley, NC. Maggie Valley is NC's answer to Pigeon Forge, TN. It's not anywhere near as big and there are hundreds of little hole-in-the-wall restaurants and gift shops and shady motels, but at the end of the valley, there is a small amusement park. Ghost Town in the Sky! My mom took my sisters and I with our neice, Natalie, here last September. We'd never been before, but we had a blast! It's got some really fun rides, a shoot out show, carnival style food, and it's not very big, so you don't feel like you are walking all over God's creation to get from one ride to the next. It's also at the top of Buck Mountain, which is about 4600 ft in the air, so it's already about 15 degrees cooler than it is here, which is nice in the late summers. The air is also noticeably thinner, so you don't feel as hot and muggy. There's a chairlift that lifts you up to 3600ish ft to the top of the mountain, where they are building a roller coaster. It's not finished yet, but we are definetly going back when it is. We rode the free fall (at the very top, you are sitting at 4800 ft in the air!) The view was breathtaking from the top, and the fall was breathtaking in a whole different way! It was so intense and I LOVED it! It took me a few minutes to find my legs again after we rode it! Then we rode "Sling the Biscuit". I can't remember it's real name, but it reminds me of a game we played when I was little that we called Sling the Biscuit, so that's what we call it.
Sling the Biscuit
An older sister, or dad, grabs your arms just above your wrists. In an open area, like the front yard, he/she starts slinging you around in a big circle until your feet come up off the ground behind you and you feel like you are flying. When they are tired of slinging you, they let go and you fall on the ground and stay there until the universe stops spinning around your head. I know, it sounds cruel, but we loved it. Don't ask me what it has to do with a biscuit- I don't remember! haha.

Well, the ride would probably remind you of the tea cups at Disney. I've never been to Disney, but it looks like it would be similar. You just basically go around and around and change direction alot. I could ride this ride all day and night. It turns my giggle box upside down. Dan however, turned green and pale! Right when it started, he said "Oh no! It's one of THOSE rides! I can't do this!" but it was too late,... the ride had already started! I asked if he was okay, and he said he just had to concentrate really hard to keep from puking. I felt bad, but I couldn't stop laughing! My giggle box was upside down, remember? So here I am, bumping into him and laughing, and he's holding on to the bar and staring straight ahead as green as he could be! Oh well, we survived it and we laughed about it later.
We also rode the swings, the kind that go in a big circle and tilt from side to side. This was amazing because it was right on the edge of the cliff, so when you got to the cliff side, your legs were just dangling way up over the mountains. The view was incredible.
We also listened to a bluegrass concert (I was totally mesmerized!). They were so good. The fiddler has won the NC Fiddle Championship several times, and the banjo picker has been grammy nominated twice. He just retired from playing in the Grand Ole Opry in TN, and came back home to Maggie Valley, where he grew up, to play at GTITS. There was a gun fight show, and it was hilarious. Dan and I had a great view of it.
I had bought my tickets online, because you save $10/ticket by doing that. When I handed her my reciept, the lady said "Bring this back when you leave the park, and you'll get two free tickets for the chairlift in October so you can see the leaves". So when we left, I stopped at the ticket window and there was a man there. He took my tickets and gave me two more. He said you actually get two free tickets to return to the park anytime between now and the end of May 2009!! We can't wait to go back!

http://www.ghosttowninthesky.com

Sub Salad Recipe!!

2008-09-14T22:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, I know this is my second post of the day, but I wanted to post this now, since I don't know when I'll have another chance to.
I work at a large hospital, and in that large hospital is a small cafe that I like to eat my dinner at occassionally (that is provided I even GET a dinner break- another issue for another post). It's called Tower Cafe. They have this salad there that I always get, and they call it the Sub Salad. It's pretty much a sub sandwich, but without the bread, and you eat it with a fork. Well, there's a few things in it that I always pick out and put to the side, and a few things that I wondered if it would be good to add to it. So I decided to come up wiht my own sub salad recipe. And here it is...

Ingredients:
1 pint cherry tomatoes (chopped)
3 full size cucumbers (peeled, chopped)
2 full size banana peppers (chopped)
1 handful of dill pickle chips (whole)
1/2 bag of Kraft Cheese Crumbles
1/2 container McCormick Salad Toppings
Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing to taste

Add all the ingredients together, including a hefty squirt of the dressing, and toss it all together in a large mixing bowl. It's great by itself, or with crackers. It's like a salad,.. but without lettuce! Let me know if you try it. I'd love to hear how you like it, or don't for that matter! haha.
(Caution- If you do'nt like spicy stuff, you might want to only put one banana pepper in. It's not like burn-your-mouth spicy, but it does add a kick to it.)

A weekend of MOOSE

2008-09-14T16:28:00.010-04:00

I realize that most of my blogs, if not about this so-called book I'm writing, is about my dog, Moose. Whatever. It's really the only interesting thing going on in my life right now,.. so here's another one!! haha.
SATURDAY:
Okay, Moose likes to sleep in his chair on the porch. Dan calls this the "Ball o' Puppy", because he looks like a great big ball of,.. well,.. puppy. haha. I find it very hard to fight the urge to take a picture of this because it is SO cute! Unfortunately, the picture doesn't look so good through the glass patio door, as you can see.

So I thought that if I went outside, and took the picture from the driveway looking up onto the porch, it might work a little better. I was trying so hard not to wake him up, that I walked out the front door and around the whole house to get this picture. And it STILL wasn't any good! Plus, I DID wake him up!

So then he wanted me to come up on the porch and play. It was way too late for this, and I really needed to get in bed, so I opened the gate to pat his head and tell him that I would play tomorrow,.. when that little rascal GOT OUT! Now, please understand how bad this is. He's not a very good listener and being that he's part beagle, part basset hound,.. he follows his nose WHEREVER it takes him,.. to other yards, down the street,.. even across a highway. I had to do something to get him back inside the gate quick before he took off! I saw that he was interested in this little green scrubby brush thing we used when we gave him a bath. We had to throw it in the trash pile because he tries to eat it. Not chew on it. Eat it, as in digest it. That just can't be good for him. So I take it and throw it up on the back porch and he went after it. "Yes!" I thought. Then I thought "NO!" because he was tearing it apart and eating it again. Now I had to get it back from him. This is him eating his scrubby thing in his favorite chair. I decided he could eat it for a few seconds while I took a picture.

SUNDAY:

We made an appointment at Petsmart for Moose to get a bath. I called the woman and she said "Will this be his first time here?" and I said "Yes", and she said "Then make sure you bring his shot records. Tags aren't enough,.. we need the actual paperwork". So we get home from church and I clean out all the junk from my car and we drive him to his bath appointment. Moose loves car rides! He was all over the place,.. in my seat,.. in Dan's seat,.. in the backseat,.. you name it. He got fascinated with the gear shift and licked it for a long time. He sniffed the AC vents, but that made him sneeze (and his sneezes are rather snotty and slobbery). Well, we drive the 20 some odd miles to Petsmart, check in at the desk, all to find out that I forgot his paperwork!! They wouldn't take him today. So I made an appointment for next Sunday. He did get to walk around the store and you could tell he loved it, so maybe it wasn't all a waste. Maybe he'll be excited to go back next week,.. until they start squirting water!

He was camera curious.

He was not happy that I made him go to the backseat.

He was helping Dan drive the car!

chapter three of book.doc

2008-08-24T22:36:00.002-04:00

~*~ Chapter Three ~*~
When the 3:30 bell rang, Elizabeth felt it wasn’t a moment too soon. She picked up a gallon of ice cream at Coker’s and drove to Stacey’s house, as previously promised. She had her tonsils removed four days earlier, and in all reality, was feeling back to her old self. She sat up in her bed, turned off the MTV show she was watching and grabbed the spoon Elizabeth handed her. While Elizabeth was helping her self to the first bite of ice cream, Stacey started describing her prom date.
“Well, I actually met him through Allison Murphy, but she said she didn’t want to date him, so when he asked me for my number, I gave it to him, and then we started talking every night,..” Elizabeth was daydreaming while Stacey went on about Jimmy, the wonder-date. What was she going to wear to the prom? Should she wear heels? Would her date be tall enough for her to wear heels? Would she have a date? How long should she wait for someone to ask her out before she should start doing the asking? Before she knew it she’d eaten a third of the ice cream. She pulled her spoon down from her mouth and stared at it in her hand, trying to think of answers to her prom questions.

“Earth to Elizabeth,… Hello? Anybody home?” Stacey was waving her hand in front of Elizabeth’s face to distract her from the daze she had entered. Elizabeth blinked and jerked her head back.
“Oh! I’m sorry Stace. He sounds great. Really.” Elizabeth was embarrassed. She didn’t mean to ignore her friend.
“No, goofy. I said, Are you going to the game tonight? We’re playing Palmetto.” Elizabeth thought for a minute. She was free, after all.
“Yeah, that sounds cool. Are you going? I mean, are you feeling up to it?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I just stayed home because my doctor’s note was for the whole week. Why waste it, ya know?” and with that Stacey dove into her share of the ice cream. Elizabeth filled Stacey in on all that she missed in school that day- the important stuff, of course. What new “prom couples” had emerged into public, whose car stalled out in the parking lot, that sort of thing.
Elizabeth loved going to the basketball games. Their high school, the Woodmont Wildcats, was always in the last place when it came to football. But when you put a basketball in their hands, they were on fire. Three times in the last four years, they went to state playoffs. It was really exciting for the students because everyone went out to the games, especially the home games. Everyone, including Ben. A smile crossed Elizabeth’s face when she thought of this.
She was still smiling as she pulled into her driveway and got out to check the mail. A bill, an advertisement, another bill,… a letter. She pulled the letter from the stack. It was addressed to Liz Berk, from Andy C. She squealed with delight. A letter from Andy! She ran back to the car and parked it in the back yard, grabbed the mail, and ran to her room. She couldn’t wait to read it. She had many friends in high school, but Andy was a best friend like no other. They met at the same church camp as kids and grew up writing letters and sending postcards through out the year. He lived in Charleston, SC, which was a good four hours from her hometown outside of Greenville, but they met up every year again at camp. They were both seniors and they were both planning on attending the same Christian school in the fall. It had been a month since she had last heard from him. She ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter.
“Liz,
What’s going on, babe? Same old thing here. School’s going fine. I met a great girl. Her name is Lydia and she’s going with me to the prom. I think you’d really like her. She reminds me a lot of you- go figure. I’m counting down the weeks ‘til camp. Call me sometime soon. I’m sending you this mini- dartboard. Go easy on it, ‘kay? Haha.
Love you babe,
Andy C. “

She looked back inside the envelope and pulled out a wallet-sized picture of Andy wearing a graduation cap. She smiled looking at his big cheesy grin. She made herself a note on her calendar to send him a ‘mini-dartboard’ of her self. In the meantime, she had a game to get ready for.

She opened the closet and pulled out her favorite blue sweater. She found her belt in a pile of clothes in the corner and grabbed her Timberland boots. She glanced in the mirror and decided to pull her long brown hair back in a low ponytail. She tied a small white ribbon in her hair. “There”, she thought as she examined herself in the mirror wearing her school colors. “How’s that for school spirit”. She left a note on the refrigerator that said ‘Gone to the game. Back by 10’.

As she pulled back into the school parking lot, she could already hear the crowd of students inside the gym. The pre-game rally had started and they were cheering “Wood- Mont- Wild- Cats- Num- ber- One!” at the top of their lungs. It was a chilly early February night and she wished she had grabbed a coat to wear as he walked up the parking lot to the open gym doors. The closer she got to the doors, the louder the chanting rang in her ears. She stepped inside and immediately was glad she didn’t bring a coat. It was so warm, with all the people in the stands, she thought a minute about taking off her sweater, but decided not to. She liked the way it looked on her, and this was not the night to look less than her best. You never know who you could run into at events like this.

She looked up in the student section and saw Stacey, standing up and waving at her. She could read her lips as she was screaming “Elizabeth! Up here!”, but the sound of the crowd drowned her out. Elizabeth smiled and waved back as she started to walk up the steps. She was focusing so hard on not tripping on anybody’s feet and making a fool of herself that she almost didn’t notice Ben sitting a few rows back with his friends. She tried not to blush or seem like she was over-interested in where Ben sat, and she stepped into the aisle to the vacant chair beside Stacey.

“Elizabeth,” Stacey was smiling so big, you’d have thought she just won a prize. “This is Jimmy. Jimmy, this is my best friend, Elizabeth”.
“Very nice to meet you,” Elizabeth held out her hand over Stacey’s lap, “I’ve heard so much about you”. He shook it and smiled back.
“Nice to meet you, too”.

The three of them ended their introductions as the announcer, Coach Barbrey, began the team roster. He would announce each Wildcat player as they came out of the locker room, dribbling a basketball. They would run and do a lay-up, then toss the ball back to the door of the locker room as their next teammate stepped up to catch it. Elizabeth, Stacey, and even Jimmy, would scream and clap for each player as he was introduced. They laughed at the mascot as he walked up and down the walking space, shaking his pom-poms and doing toe-touches. They cheered along as the team was working its way to a victory over the rival Palmetto Mustangs. Sometime during the last quarter, Stacey’s throat went totally dry.

“I’m gonna go get some water. Want anything?” Stacey stood up and pulled a five dollar bill from her pocket.
“Nah, no thanks”. Elizabeth was broke and she didn’t feel like bumming money off her friend.
“I’ll walk with you,” Jimmy stood up too. He followed Stacey down the steps and down to the concession stands. The coach had just called a timeout. Elizabeth was watching the mascot make a fool of him self when her daze was interrupted by someone taking the seat beside her. She looked to her right to see Ben sitting down in the empty seat. She didn’t know what to say, and to top it all off, he had on a long sleeve blue plaid shirt that really looked nice. She was completely speechless.

“Hi there,” He said to her shoes.
“Hey, Ben. I didn’t see you come over… Where are you sitting?” Elizabeth was trying to act as if she weren’t too interested, but at the same time, not like she didn’t care.
“Yeah, I’m sitting back there with Steven and David. They went to get something to drink before they close down the concession stands.” His eyes were following the ball up and down the court. Elizabeth looked at them. They were brown.

She had tried so many times to pretend the feelings she had for him weren’t real. They were too controversial! She kept telling herself “He’s a sophomore, Liz! A sophomore! Even if he liked you, what good is it in a few months when you leave for school out of state?” He cheered for a three-point score. She watched the way his eyes sparkled under the gymnasium lights. She knew that his sophomore status wasn’t really what was stopping her. It was fear of rejection. What is she put herself out there and asked him, and he said no. She was so safe at this distance! So safe with him not knowing how she felt! So,... invisible. His brown eyes turned from the scoreboard and met hers. She felt her throat close and she knew it was now or never. The cheers from the crowd seemed to fade to silence from her.

“Ben,” she had to spit this out before she had time to change her mind. He diverted his eyes down to his shoes and fought hard with the grin that was threatening to show itself. “Do you already have a date to the prom?” Whew. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Her heart was pounding in her chest. No taking it back now.
“You mean, like, did I ask someone? I’m a sophomore. I don’t, I mean, no,” He looked confused.
“Well, I’m asking. I mean, I don’t have a date. I bought my tickets today, and well, I don’t have anyone to go with, unless you want to and if you don’t that’s fine, I just thought it would be fun to go,… unless of course if you don’t want to,.. or if you have plans, that’s totally fine,..” she couldn’t stop rambling. She felt herself getting faster and faster as her stomach did somersaults.
“Sure”. He looked up at her again. “I’ll be glad to go”. And with that, a moment of awkward silence, that was fortunately soon broken. It was broken by Stacey and Jimmy, followed by Steven and David.
“Some game, huh?” Stacey took a sip from her water and nodded towards the scoreboard. Wildcats won, 93 to 90. Elizabeth hadn’t even noticed the game ended. She looked down at the court to see the Woodmont fans celebrating and the opposing fans heading to the parking lot.
“Oh, yeah,” She stood up and Ben walked over to Steven and David.
He turned and looked her and said to no one in particular, “See ya’ll later”. The guys walked down to the court and disappeared in the crowd.
“You hungry?” Stacey asked, while Jimmy held her close to him with his arm around her waist. “The Clock will probably stay open late tonight”.
“No, thanks. I better get home. I’ve got some, um, stuff to do at home. Jimmy, it was great meeting you. See you tomorrow, Stace.” She walked to her car, totally unaware of the evening’s chill.

As she drove home from the game that night, she stirred a few questions around in her head. Why did Ben say ‘yes’ to the prom? Was it because he’s a sophomore and he’ll likely be the only sophomore to go to the prom, and hoped that would promote his popularity? Or could he possible feel the same way about her and she does about him? And what was with him leaving like that? No exchange of phone numbers, no arrangements to meet and talk about the details, no nothing. Just a generic goodbye. It was easy to dismiss all of her concerns by realizing he was just being Ben. Ben is goofy sometimes, and always has been, really. That was what brought her to like him so much. She thought it was funny and cute how he was always ten seconds late to laugh when someone told a joke, and how he shared a locker with his best friend, Steven, because he kept forgetting the combination to his own. He was tall, had dark brown hair, brown eyes, athletic build, and a big smile. Yet, he didn’t exactly have girls falling all over him like anyone else with his looks would. He was the kind of guy that girls loved to hang out with and everyone wanted to be his ‘buddy’, but you never heard of anyone having a crush on him. She was somewhat the same. She was a tall girl, with long brown hair and a pretty complexion. She had a good figure and lots of friends. She even had lots of boys as friends, but never any boyfriends. She was the ‘kid sisterly’ type, the ‘girl buddy’ of the group. They all wanted to hang out with her, but she’d never really been asked out by any of the guys at her school. Then she wondered something else. Why was she so attracted to Ben? Did she honestly find him romantically attractive? Or did she feel like he was safe? She’d had crushes on so many guys before, only to end up being their ‘buddy’ and she was sick of it. She was ready for one, just one, romance to actually be realized before she graduated and moved off to college. Just once, she wanted to feel that butterfly feeling in her tummy as she lay her head on her pillow at night, thinking of him and knowing that somewhere, some handsome guy was feeling butterflies too, thinking of her. Was Ben so attractive to her, because she felt like he was inferior to the rest of the guys she knew, and therefore, felt like he was attainable? She didn’t have an answer. She didn’t know why she felt the way about Ben that she did. But she knew one thing for sure. She had a date to the senior prom, and he was cute.

Chapter Two of Book.doc

2008-08-21T09:25:00.000-04:00

~*~ Chapter Two ~*~

“.. that was Mambo No. 5 and you’re time check this morning is 8:14 on this beautiful Friday morning. Let’s go to Anne for our traffic report. Anne?”
“Yes, watch out for delays on south bound Church street in Greenville. We’ve got an accident blocking the left lane backing up traffic well over the bridge,..”
Elizabeth pulled out of her driveway and turned the radio up in her car. “Good,” she thought, “I might just be on time today.” She reached into her passenger seat and grabbed her CDs. She pulled out her favorite, Jump Little Children, and popped it in. She drove to the end of her street and turned right onto Highway 25, singing along with her CD. She drove her old Honda past the old elementary school, where her mother worked. She drove past Coker’s Grocery, where Mr. Coker was just unlocking the front door and turning the sign on the door to show they were open. She drove past the Burger King on her left, where there were several familiar cars in the parking lot. Many students met there in the mornings to get their coffee and breakfast before heading to school. She was never up early enough to go. The road took her past her best friend’s house, Stacey Green. She looked up in the yard and saw Odie, their yellow lab, lying on the front porch watching the busy road in front of her. The traffic light ahead of her turned red and she pulled to a stop. She looked down at her CD player and turned up the volume.
“There is a place for me..” she belted. She loved to sing along with this band. There was just something about how the guitar blended flawlessly with the vocals and then there was that cello, oh, that cello that brought it all to life. She was so wrapped up into the music, turning it louder and louder, singing with her eyes closed that when she turned her head to the left and opened them, she notice a black pick up truck, with a dent in the front. She gasped and stopped singing. She casually looked over to see the driver of the vehicle looking straight ahead at the light. He appeared to be deep in thought. She turned down her radio and took a quick look in the rear view mirror at her hair. She sat back again in her seat and the light turned green. She slowly pulled past the truck, just enough to see the driver in her rearview mirror. “Whew”, she said out loud to herself. She felt sure he didn’t see her performance. She drove the rest of the way to school, followed by the black truck at a distance. And while she knew he couldn’t possibly see her, she felt it best to just listen to the rest of her music instead of sing along, lest she get carried away again.
She pulled into her senior parking space, grabbed her book bag and started walking on the sidewalk towards the front of the school. She felt someone slap the back of her book bag and turned around to see her friend, Nicole, walking along side of her.
“Hey you,” Nicole smiled and started fishing for change in her purse. “Got a quarter? I’m thirsty”.
“Hey, umm,.. let’s see,..” Elizabeth stopped walking and slid her book bag to one side so she could look for change in the front pocket.
“Ben,” Nicole waved past Elizabeth and called to the guy getting out of his black truck, the one with the dent in the front. “Save me a seat in study hall”. Elizabeth stopped her search for the quarter and jerked to look in Ben’s direction. He was tall and handsome, but shy and a little goofy. He smiled back at Nicole, nodded his head and turned towards the school. Elizabeth watched him walk to the opposite side of the building. She watched him walk around the corner and disappear in the crowd of sophomores. She slowly turned back to her book bag and saw Nicole’s hand being held out.
“Quarter? Shiny little circular thing? Kinda flat? Dead man’s picture on it? Got one?” Nicole tried to act annoyed, but she a smile broke her facial expression and she giggled. “What’s with you?” Elizabeth slapped a quarter into Nicole’s hand and tried to hide the blush from her cheeks.
“I, uh,… just thought of something I, uh,.. forgot.” Elizabeth started walking back to the school again, Nicole beside her.
“Well, I hope it wasn’t your money for the prom tickets. You know that today is the last day to buy them.”
“Oh no, it wasn’t them. I’ve got my money. I just don’t have a date”. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “ I don’t know why they make us buy these things so far in advance anyway. Who knows what could happen between now and May?!”
“I can’t believe you don’t have a date. You mean to tell me not one of these eligible young men around here would take you?” Nicole started pointing to random guys as they passed by, embarrassing Elizabeth.
“Well, maybe I don’t want to go with just some random person”. Nicole looked hard at her.
“You mean, you have one particular person in mind? Do you have a crush? Who is it? You have to tell me!! C’mon, c’mon, tell me!” she pulled on Elizabeth’s sleeve. Elizabeth jerked her sleeve back and laughed.
“No, silly. I just meant that,.. well,.. no one’s asked me. What if some great guy comes and asks me. I don’t want to ask someone else first and miss that opportunity. I just want to keep my options open, ya know?” Elizabeth was starting to blush again. She could feel the heat filling her cheeks and it was getting harder and harder to keep the grin off her face.
“Sure. I’m not buying it. But if you don’t want to tell me who they mystery man is, that’s cool. It’ll come out eventually. I just think you’re making a mistake. I mean, what if I know him and I could put in a good word for you?” Nicole was trying to act like it didn’t bother her that Elizabeth might be keeping a secret from her.
“There’s no one, Nic. And besides, you make it sound so simple. It’s really more complicated than all that”. Elizabeth pulled open the door to the main hallway and held it for Nicole.
“Well, whatever. I say you should always go for it. If there’s someone you want to take to prom, don’t wait too late. You’ll always wonder what could have happened. I gotta run, I’m meeting Ben in study hall so we can finish our math homework. Poor guy can’t do algebra to save his life.” And with that, Nicole walked down the opposite hall and left Elizabeth to walk the rest of the way to English alone. She didn’t mind though. It gave her time to think.
And she did think. A lot. All during her chemistry class, while Mr. Culler was going through covalent bonding, she wondered about what Nicole had said. “.. you should always go for it..”. And then she thought of her feeble excuse, holding out for a really special guy to come along and ask her to the prom. Elizabeth knew this would never happen. First of all, she wasn’t exactly Miss Woodmont. She wasn’t unattractive, in fact, she was quite pretty. Her chesnut hair reached down just past her shoulders and her fair, clear complexion was the envy of most of her girlfriends. Still, she never got a lot of attention from guys. She was missing something that the popular girls had- confidence. They had that alluring quality that always held them just above any guy’s reach. If a guy came up to talk to Elizabeth about prom, they would be asking her for Stacey Green’s phone number so they could ask her. Second of all, the only special guy she was interested in going to the prom with was too young to buy the tickets anyway. Ben Troller was a sophomore, and had lived down the street from Elizabeth all his life. They weren’t exactly close friends, more like casual acquaintances. It wasn’t until recently that Elizabeth had noticed what a personality he had. He was different from any other guys she knew. Still, she was invisible, and he was too young. There was no chance of them going to prom together, unless something drastic happened. And say something drastic did happen. Even though she would be thrilled to go with him to the most romantic dance of her high school career, would she want to be seen with a sophomore at her senior prom? What would her friends think? It would be one thing if they were known to be best friends, and she could pass it off as a “friend date”, but to date, they’d never been seen talking to one another, let alone close enough friends to pass that off! Suppose her dream of him asking her actually came true, would she say yes?
“Well, will you? Elizabeth? It’s a yes or no question”. Mr. Culler, along with the rest of the class, was waiting for Elizabeth’s answer. She quickly snapped out of her daydream and stuttered an inaudible answer.
“Will you please call Stacey with the reading assignment? I would do it myself, but I know you’ll be calling her anyway, knowing you two. Just because she had her tonsils out, that’s no reason for her to get behind. It’s your senior year you know. Time to sprint to the finish.” He had already turned his back to her and was writing the assignment on the board. Everyone else was busy packing their bookbags and making their way to the cafeteria and vending machines for lunch. She jotted down her note for Stacey, and then joined the rest of the students craving an ice cold soft drink. That’s when she realized she’d given Nicole a quarter this morning, and she was short on change for a drink. She’d have to try her luck with an old wrinkled dollar bill.
“Oh c’mon, it’s not going to work. There’s a line back here..” people were lining up behind her and they were getting impatient. Just when she was about to forget about it and go sit down, out of nowhere came a hand, with a crisp new dollar bill.
“I’ll trade dollars with you”, said a deep voice. He slipped the bill into the machine and hit the button for a Coke. “I’m going to the cafeteria, so I can use a wrinkled one.” She heard the sound of the drink falling to the bottom of the machine, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him and yet, at the same time, she couldn’t look directly at his eyes. It was like looking into the sun. She was afraid it would make her see spots or something and ruin her chances of seeing anything else of him. She noticed he couldn’t seem to look her in the eyes either. But not in the way that people can’t look into your eyes when they’re being dishonest. It was brutal honesty. He had that familiar goofy grin that told her he was probably feeling the same jitterbugs in his stomach as she was feeling in hers. He just looked down at the ground, grinning. A long awkward silence later, Elizabeth took the dollar she had been trying to shove into the drink machine and held it out to Ben’s hand. He slowly took it from her hand and smiled. He muttered something that sounded like it was a thank you, and then turned to walk back inside the cafeteria, just in time to bump into an innocent bystander. Elizabeth bit her lip to try and hide the glee she was feeling. She grabbed her drink and floated on air the entire rest of the day.

Moose and his Mouse! Eeew!

2008-08-14T11:12:00.000-04:00

So today's blog is about my dog, Moose. He's crazy. Really. You know how when all the ice in your freezer kind of sticks together, and it's hard to get it to break apart, so you have to throw that ice in the sink and let the icemaker start making new ice? Well, when that happens at our house (which is alot because we have the fastest ice maker in the world, apparently), we give Moose the big ice. He loves it, especially with it being so hot outside, he licks it until it's all gone. He tries to carry it around the yard, but it's too cold for his mouth, so he ends up dropping it every three steps. It's funny to watch.

This morning, I looked out the patio window to see what he was up to, and I found him,.. lying next to his victim! He killed a mouse! Eeewww!!! If you know me well, you know that I am TERRIFIED of mice (at least live ones), and the thought that there was one in my yard, well it just gives me the heebie jeebies! He was so proud of it though. I told him that it was good and rubbed his head, so maybe he'll find all of them and kill them. The only good mouse, is a dead mouse. I just wish he'd bury it when he's done killing it!

Oh, and if you're wondering why he's naked in these pictures, it's because he CHEWED UP HIS COLLAR! How does a dog chew up his own collar you ask? I don't know for sure, but I think he managed to pull it off somehow and then eat it. We put it on him pretty loose because he's still a puppy and he's growing so fast, we didn't want it to be too snug on him. We have the part with the tags on it, but the rest, well, he's probably still digesting it. I have to go buy him a new one today. And believe me, it won't be nearly as loose as the last one! See? I told you he was crazy.

Be careful! You just might end up in my novel!

2008-08-06T00:06:00.000-04:00

I saw that on a 'bumper sticker' on facebook recently, and thought it was funny. Mainly, because I've been writing alot, and it seems to be taking the shape of a novel. Who knows where I'll end up with it. See, I think I see the world differently than most people. I literally find humor in EVERYTHING I see, and since laughing is my second favorite, only to making others laugh, I like to share my perspective on things. Usually, it is my own mishaps (read previous blogs and you'll know what I'm talking about), or my own misunderstandings that I think "Wow, If I was someone else watching me right now, I would SO laugh my head off". It is the little stories of what I have experienced that cause people to tell me quite often "you should write a book!". So often in fact, that I started that very thing,.. about 2 yrs ago. It doesn't have a title, adn it's only known to me as "book.doc" on my computer, but so far it has 12 and a half chapters. I think the hardest part is naming the characters. See, it's not fiction, and it's not non-fiction. It's semi-fiction, pseudo-fiction, hemi-fiction, whatever you want to call it. The experiences in the story are all true (with a few twerks to make it flow with the overall story line), but they didn't necessarily happen to me. Well, not all of them. Some of them are things that have happened to close friends of mine, and I've written into the life of the main character, so all the mishaps are happening to the same person (which is the basis of her character anyway). And the characters, well, they are hybrids of people I know. The "best friend", is actually 3 or 4 of my best friends and 2 sisters rolled into one person. Anyway, I have no idea who out there in Blogland will read this, or reads anything I write on here for that matter. I just wanted to preface this with all of that so you'll know that anyone in here that seems like someone you know,.. well, that may or may not be so. It might only be an eighth of someone you know.
I'm only going to put the first chapter on here, because 13 chapters is alot of blogging and I wanted to see what the response is like before posting anymore of book.doc. Oh! And if any of you can think of a great title for it, I'm open to suggestions. Like I said, it's "book.doc" to me.
Enjoy! Or not. Whatever.

~*~ Chapter One ~*~
Have you ever met one of those people that everything just seems to happen for them? They learned how to ice skate on the first try, they’ve never spent a Valentine’s Day single, and they always get the best parking spaces at the mall. They’ll get into their first choice college and they’ll make straight A’s while maintaining a perfect social life. Their rooms are never messy, their nail polish never chips and they never, ever run out of gas. You know exactly who I am talking about. This is not a story about one of those people. This is a story about Elizabeth Berk.
Elizabeth fell the first time she ever went ice-skating. It was her best friend’s birthday party and she had crept along the edge of the rink, clinging to every possible nook and cranny of the wall just to hold her body upright as her feet slid aimlessly beneath her, threatening to make her fall in front of half of her fifth grade class and mortify her forever. She had managed to make it halfway around the rink, watching as her friends passed by her three, four, some of them even five times, calling “Hey Liz! Let go of the wall! C’mon, hold on to my arm! We’re making a chain- grab on!” Grab on?! Were they crazy? Don’t they realize how fast they were going? There was no way she could bring her self to let go of the quarter inch thick window framing that her life depended upon to grab onto their flailing arms and risk not being able to keep up with them. And besides, even if she wanted to, her whole body was frozen to that wall- perhaps permanently. She was thinking how lucky she was to have made it this far and thought if she could just make it the last quarter of the rink, she would never step foot on another piece of ice for as long as she lived. She would just sit on the safe bench with the moms and watch as her friends raced and chained their way across the frozen circle before them. It was just as she was beginning to smile at the thought of sitting down when she heard a loud buzzer. Was it a fire? Oh please let it be a fire! Maybe then the ice would melt and she could run to the safety of the bench! Only, it wasn’t a fire. She saw her friends all make their way, laughing and racing still, to the exit door and take off their skates. Was the party over? Since when was there a buzzer to let you know the party was over? Just then she heard a lady’s voice coming over the loudspeaker, “Please exit the ice rink and remove your skates. We will reopen the rink after refinishing in about 20 minutes”. Elizabeth started to panic. Refinish the rink? How do they do that? Then she heard a terrible noise behind her. The screeching of rusted metal doors slowly opening and scraping the ice as they swung wide. Behind them stood a large vehicle, similar to a tractor, but yellow and red and angry. It was bouncing to the vibrations of the motor, growling and spitting water everywhere as it terrorized the ice rink. Elizabeth looked across the ice to her friends and their mothers watching her with their noses pressed against the plexi-glass. For a moment she knew what it was like to be a fish in a pet store. She could read Mrs. Green’s lips as she shouted, “Get off the rink! Let go of the wall! Come off the rink, Elizabeth!” Let go of the wall?! And then what? Fall? Forget it! She turned her attention back to the monster named Zamboni. It was already refinishing the south end of the rink and now it was working its way around the edge- coming straight for her. She wasn’t sure if it had brakes or not, it wasn’t moving very fast, but even if it did, would they work on wet ice? And could the driver even see her as she clung to the wall for her life- however shortly that may end. She had no choice. It was letting go of the wall and skate to safety, or die at the mercy of a Zamboni- so she held on and closed her eyes. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt too much. She wondered if anyone had ever died at the mercy of a Zamboni, and if she were the first, would they put her name in the paper? She thought of Stacey, the birthday girl. Would she ever forgive me for ruining her party? She hoped they wouldn’t watch her death- that would be embarrassing- yet she felt all their eyes glaring at her and while she couldn’t hear their screams, she could see them in her mind mouthing crazy stuff like “Let go of the wall! Let go of the wall!” She wasn’t stupid though. She was not going to fall! She could feel the vibrations from the motor of the Zamboni as it made its way closer to her. She couldn’t bear to turn around and look at it. How close was it now? Twenty feet away? Fifteen? Ten? How would they tell her mother what happened? “Um,.. Mrs. Berk, Elizabeth wouldn’t let go of the wall. We tried to tell her, but you see, the Zamboni doesn’t have brakes..” She hoped for a quick death, but judging by the slow progress of the monster, it was highly doubtful. The motor was getting louder and louder,… she was sure the end was just inching closer. She squeezed the wall and tucked her face into the crook of her arm, preparing for her doom. Then it happened. She felt a jolt and something grabbed her shoulders with aggression she didn’t know the Zamboni had. Without thinking, she looked up and saw not the Zamboni, but a very cute red headed young man, maybe in high school. His jacket had a giant blue “P” on it, indicating he worked here at The Pavilion. He wasn’t looking at her, but at the exit of the rink and that’s when she noticed her feet were connected with the ice. She wasn’t leaning on him; he was simply guiding her direction. She was skating. She wasn’t falling. She was reaching out for the door with her free hand before she knew it. When their skates made contact with the rubber floor and they were no longer inside the rink, he disappeared down a hallway and her attention turned to all the friends who were looking at her in amazement. “Why didn’t you let go? You could have gotten hurt!” She sat down on the bench and began taking her skates off. Stacey stood in front of her and grinned. Elizabeth was glad she wasn’t angry. She never meant to take so much attention away from her birthday party and she was relieved to see that Stacey seemed to understand that.
“Wow Liz! That damsel in distress thing works! Did you see who got you? It was Matt Thorne! He is so cute! Did he talk to you?” Stacey’s eyes showed so much interest, but Elizabeth didn’t know how to tell her he didn’t even look at her.
“C-c-can you please hand me my shoes?” was all she could manage, pointing at the pair on top of the pile behind Stacey. Stacey smiled and turned to get them. The other girls who were all very disappointed in learning that Elizabeth had made no contact with Matt at all walked away and headed for the arcade. Stacey sat down beside Elizabeth and handed her the right shoe.
“Are you having fun?”
“Oh yeah! It’s great! Thank you for inviting me, Stacey” Elizabeth smiled at Stacey. Somehow it didn’t matter what she said to Stacey, she knew Stacey could tell she was thoroughly embarrassed and would probably never skate again in her life.
“C’mon, let’s go get some cake,” and with that, Stacey jumped up and the two girls giggled all the way to the party room about how Matt Thorne really is the cutest guy they’ve ever seen up close and how even though he didn’t look at Liz, he did touch her jacket and that was more than the entire fifth grade at Greengrove Elementary could say.
Later that afternoon, after the presents were opened and the cake was eaten, the other kids all lined back up with their skates and started circling the ice again. Elizabeth sat by herself on a bench. She wasn’t pouting or being a party-pooper. She was waving at her friends and laughing with them as they chased one another and slid around like little snowflakes. She was so wrapped up in their good time, that she barely noticed when two people sat on the bench in front of her. In fact, she wouldn’t have noticed at all, until he took off his hat. It was Matt Thorne. He was sitting with Mrs. Green, Stacey’s mother. Matt lived near them and cut their grass in the summertime. Elizabeth would spend the night at Stacey’s a lot in the summer and they always giggled when Matt came in to get paid for mowing the lawn.
“Hey Mrs. Green,” Matt smiled as he took the toboggan off his head. His freckles almost disappeared from his pink cheeks. Elizabeth could tell he’d been on the ice skating.
“How are you? It’s almost springtime. Can I count on you to handle the yard again this year?” Mrs. Green was one of the nicest people Liz knew. She was very thoughtful and had a great sense of humor.
“Of course. I’m saving up for a car. I’ve been working here since I turned 15 in November. I’m getting pretty good at skating and staying in shape for football this fall.”
“Well, we sure did appreciate your handiwork a while ago. I guess that Liz was just too scared to let go of the wall.”
“Yeah, we always get one little scaredy-cat with every party. I don’t mind being the hero, it just gets old after a while ya know. I mean, it’s not like they don’t hear the buzzer. Well, listen, I’ve got to get back to work. Tell Bill I said I’ll catch him later! Bye Mrs. G!” and with that he was off the bench and skating across the ice to the south end, where the Zamboni lives. He opened a little door and skated through it and was gone. Stacey caught Liz’s eye and acted like she was grabbing her heart and fainting after Matt skated by. She laughed and Liz smiled back, but inside, she felt like a huge loser. Matt Thorne said she was a scaredy-cat, but worst of all, she knew he was right.

1017.66 miles in 7 days

2008-07-11T23:43:00.000-04:00

But in reality, it was more like in 3 days, since we only traveled last Friday, Sunday and today.

We just got home a few hours ago from our vacation! We had a great time, but boy are we glad to be home and not on I85 anymore!! We left Friday, July 4th and drove to Montgomery, AL to spend the long weekend with Dan's parents. Everything was fine, and we were making good timing, until we hit about 30 minutes north of Montgomery. Apparently there was a very severe accident involving a truck pulling a U-Haul trailor, and three other vehicles. We sat on the interstate for nearly 2 hours, watched 3 rescue helicopters come and go with victims from accident, and every emergency vehicle you can imagine driving all around us in the median and side of the road to get to the crash. I counted and we were about 35 cars behind the accident. That means if we had been just a few minutes earlier, maybe even seconds, that could have been us riding that helicopter! Whew! Kinda makes you look at that long line for the ladies' room in Newnan, GA in a different way, doesn't it? haha.
Sidenote: Dan thought I was crazy for making friends with the other people on the interstate. Hey, you're not going anywhere,.. why not make new friends?

Saturday, we had Dan's uncle and aunt and cousin and new boyfriend over for dinner, as well as Tommy, Carol Leah and Thomas! It was very entertaining watching Thomas do his karate kick. It is much improved since Christmas! haha. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone again.

Sunday, we went to Dalraida Church of Christ for Bible Study and Worship. Then back to the Ingrams' for a delicious lunch and then we hit the road to Florida for vacation.
Sun- Fri: My family has always gone to the same beach since I was a little girl,.. well, really since my mother was a little girl! Mexico Beach, FL is located between Panama City and Apalachicola. I hadn't been there in 5 yrs, so I was amazed at how much it had grown up, but then there's those things that are exactly as I remembered them from the very first trip down there and my first time seeing the ocean. We stayed on 32nd Street, my cousins Missy and Toni (along with 7 small children) rented a house across the street from us, and behind them is their grandfather's house on 33rd street, where my Aunt Elaine, Uncle Avery, and cousin Brooke stayed. Mr. Crozier was one of the first property owners in Mexico Beach and his house is full of tons of childhood memories for me, and even so much more so for his granddaughters and great grandkids! I'm very very sad to say that Mr. Crozier passed away on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. He was recently attacked when his home in Georgia was burglarized, and did not survive his injuries. This is a very difficult time for his family, and prayers on their behalf I know would be appreciated. It was sort of ironic though. About 11 yrs ago, his wife passed away in their beach house, peacefully, in her sleep. And now, we were at that same beach house, when he passed away this past week. The grandkids all picked out shells from the beach to lay in his casket. I thought that was only fitting.
On a brighter and lighter note, we were able to take in a few of our favorite spots from long long ago.
We ate at Toucan's and spent too much money in their gift shop, as usual.

We shopped at The Shell Shack, and got ice cream at Tommy T's.
Here are some pics of the week.

Get comfortable,.. it's a long one...

2008-06-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Before I get into today's blog, here's a few notes on what's going on to catch all of you up on the World of Trudy (because I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats! haha).
CAMP
Camp was fantastic! We just got home on Saturday and I must say I'm still catching up on sleep! I guess I'm not as young as I used to be. I remember when I used to leave camp on Saturday morning and drive home, take a shower, go to work until 11, church the next morning and never miss a beat. Those days are GONE! It was a wonderful time to spend with some good old friends (The Grays, The Taylors, The Other Taylors, The Judds, etc..) and to meet some new ones (The World Needs Reagan!). I hope the campers got as much out of the week as I did.
WORK
Work is going great. I'm working parttime now, which is what I wanted. 30 hours a week, so enough to make my car payments and then some, but I also get to do things around the house in the morning (like blogging?) before I have to leave. I still get off really late (sometimes it's 10pm) and that does cut into my Dan and Trudy time, but he's very understanding and we meet each other for lunch as much as we can,s o we're working through it. My boss is the greatest ever and I absolutely love the people I work with. They rock.
FAMILY
I got to see alot of my family this past week at camp. Camp for me is something of a family reunion! My sisters both came up to spend the night a couple of times, and Lavinia brought Natalie (my neice). She thought she was such a big girl staying in Cabin 5 for the night! It was fun. The night before we all left for camp, we all went to Medieval Times in Atlanta. It was me and Dan, Heidi and Paul (new boyfriend- nice guy), Lavinia and Natalie. If you've never been, you should definitely go! My parents are doing great,.. Daddy turns the big 50 in a few weeks. We're planning a big cookout at his house. He's going to love it. I can't believe my dad is 50 yrs old! Wow.

Okay, now for what this blog is REALLY about. As you can see, my life is going pretty well. I have a loving husband, and as you just read, things are going great for us. Notice I didn't put any comments about school. HA! This is difficult for me to even write b/c I'm not happy about it all, but there's a point to all of this and I"ll get to it at the end. You need to know this to understand that. I graduated from GTC in 2003 with a diploma in Surgical Technology. I loved that. I worked in the operating room at Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital for almost a year, working in every kind of surgery you can imagine. It is very labor intensive work, and most people do it for a number of years before advancing to something else. ABMH didn't have anything fulltime for me, so I ended up leaving them and working for a medical supply company (HATED THAT JOB) for about 3 yrs until Dan could find steady work and I could focus on going back to school. So we did that. I decided I would go back for nursing, and then work in the OR as a circulator. I started taking the prerequisites, and then I started applying,... and then I started getting denials. Four of them. I just recieved the fourth one in the mail about a week ago. At first, it didn't bother me, I kinda figured it would take more than once to get in. Then people that I know (and excuse me for being mean here) that you wonder if they forgot to pay their brain bill sometimes starting making it in and I didn't. So I started persuing a different school. GWU. I got letters of recommendation, I got a background check, I jumped through every hoop they could throw at me. Nothing. They rejected me twice. I even finished my chemistry class this past spring with the 2nd highest grade in the class.... nothing. All for nothing. Apparently, they are seeing something in me that I don't and it's telling them that I don't have what it takes. It's very frustrating. I've talked to a few people about this, but not many because, well,.. I feel like a complete failure, and that's not just good dinner conversation. This girl at church said "Do you think that maybe God's trying to show you something else? There's another path that you'd be happier in, and He's trying to get your attention?". At first I blew this off, but then I started thinking about it (late at night, like 3 am, when I should be sleeping). So I started to look at other healthcare fields, and being the asthmatic that I am, my interest led me to Respiratory Therapy. This is a growing field, they make as much as nurses, etc. I talked to the head of the RRT dept at Spbg Tech College and he said that he thinks I have a great chance of making it in,... next fall. Fall 2009. That's over a year away! They've already accepted all they are going to take for this fall, so I have to wait until the next class opens up, next year. In the meantime, what am I supposed to do?
I've always seen myself as a mother one day. I love my mother, and I think she is the best mother in the world, and I want to try to fill those shoes. I want to see the Ingrams be grandparents, I want to see Lavinia and Heidi be aunts, and I can't wait for Dan to be a dad (can you imagine? hah!!). I want to teach my child about the church, I want to see my kid grow up and go to Bible Camp, I want to rock them in that big rocking chair in the nursery, and change their stinky diapers, and teach them to read. Dan is on board with this, but he says absolutely not until I finish school. I feel like a kid who is asking to go outside and play in the yard and their dad is saying "Not till you finish your homework!". "But dad! The sun is going down and there's only a few more hours left! I can do my homework tonight after dinner." Did you catch that analogy? I'm 26 yrs old. My birthday is in January. If I started RRT school NEXT fall (and that of course is banking that I am accepted), I will be 27. RRT is six semesters (fall, spring, summ, fall, spring, summ). When I graduate, I will be 29, pushing 30. Now I realize that is not old (anymore) and that lots of women have babies well into their 30s and are just fine. But, I've had enough anatomy/physiology to understand that after 35, you are labeled as High Risk and there are higher chances of complications. I always just saw myself having my kids earlier than that. My plan is not coming together like I wanted it to. I want to have multiple kids, and if I start at 30 or later, well, I just ain't getting any younger.
So I started looking at degrees I could get in the meantime (technically I"m like a 5th yr senior in college,.. I've had ALOT of school) that would get me out of school and to where I can start having a kid. Teaching came to mind. I originally wanted to be a teacher. With a few foreign languages, a math, and some ed classes, I could be a high school biology teacher. Dan said "Well, if that's what you WANT to do, and not what you're just trying to get out of school with, then fine." Then I said "But what if I get into the classroom and some kid asks me a hard question, and I do'nt know the answer? Or for that matter, what if I go into RRT and someone gets suddenly sick and I make a mistake and they die? What if.." and he cut me off. Then he said what I feel this entire blog is all about. He said "Trudy, I think you're problem is, you have no confidence. At all."
He's so right! That's it! That's why I can't decide on anything! I second guess every decision I ever make dozens of times. The only thing I havent ever second guessed was marrying him! If I'm going to be happy in ANY career (RRT, teaching, motherhood, etc) I'm going to have to find some confidence. Do you think that's what GWU saw in me that was lacking? Do you think that's what I dind't make it in? During my interview, did I show a lack of confidence, which is a necessary trait for nursing? Could be. It would make sense. And lets face it, if Dan said "Honey, let's procreate today" and we decided to go ahead with the parenting thing, isn't confidence a necessary trait as a mother? I've seen my sister with Natalie enough to know that she has to show Natalie that she is confident in the decisions she is making and Natalie trusts that.
I think the next step in me getting to be the person I need to be, is finding my confidence. But how? How does one build confidence? You send your kid to Karate to learn confidence, but I'm not very coordinated, and I would feel a little silly being the only adult in the beginner's class. My mom sent me to music lessons. I play violin, very well, actually. I playing in numerous quartets, and competed against other quartets. My quartet never recieved less than "Highest Excellence" in a competition (the highest grade). But when solo time came? I got sick. I would puke. I shook so bad I couldn't play. I even had a judge ask me one time what happened between that alto violinist in the quartet he just saw and the solo violinist standing in front of him,.. was I the same person? The answer (now I know) is confidence. The alto wasn't alone. She had a soprano, a viola and a cello. They kept her rhythm and she kept theirs. Their music cued her into where she should play and she did the same for them. They made eye contact at each key change as if to say "We're changing here,.. stay with me,.. we got htis..". But when she took the stage alone, she was alone. There was no friendly eye contact, just a pencil scribbling from a fat man in a suit. I know that there will be days that I will have my kid, at home, alone. Dan will be at work. My parents will be at work. And something will happen where I have to have confidence in myself. Will I be like the alto trudy or the solo trudy? When I'm in RRT class, I'll probably be just fine. In fact, during anatomy and physiology, I was the most vocal one. I answered questions out loud in class all the time. But when test time came, it was just all me. I have no confidence in myself, when it's just me. I rely waaaaay too much on others to double check me and make sure I'm doing the right thing. That's not okay. I need help, but I'm really lost on this. And let's face it, getting 4 nursing school rejections didn't help any.

If you've read this entire post,.. wow. Thanks. I think you should go buy yourself an ice cream. I really do appreciate it. I just have been thinking the past few days on how to address this and I am coming up with nothing. If you have any suggestions on how one finds her confidence, please drop me a post and let me know.

Thanks for being so awesome!

2008-06-09T14:29:00.001-04:00

I must say, this is the most challenging tag I've ever recieved. Usually it's a funny little survey thing,.. but this one has actually gotten my stumped. Even as I am writing this, I don't know what I'm going to answer. I got this from Kristy,.. she's a thinker!

The Six Word Memoir

This idea came from the book by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure . The book is a compilation that is based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his entire life in just six words. His words? For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

4. Tag five more blogs with links.

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Here is my Six Word Memoir:
Learning more about my faith everyday.

I'm going to tag...
1. Carol Leah Hatfield
2. Britney Fureigh
3. Chad Yeilding
4. Abbie Greer
5. Brooke Williams

What's a good post without a ton of pics?

2008-05-31T23:41:00.000-04:00

I've really been bad about keeping up with this thing! Here's the latest on our oh-so-interesting lives!

1. Moose is getting bigger and bigger! When we got him, he weighed in around 23 lbs. At his last checkup, which was about 2 wks ago, he was around 31 lbs! And the vet said she would expect him to top around 50 lbs when he's through growing! I guess we should have thought twice before naming him Moose. He's going to be about as big as one!! Here's some pics of him and his silly self.

Dan said "Are those your legs, son, or are you riding a chicken?"

This is how we found him napping one afternoon.

He loves this blanket. We hung it on the fence to dry after a morning rain. Then it came a sudden downpour again out of nowhere. He stayed under it like a tent. He prefers this to his doghouse.

This is one of those torpedo things that you find in the pet store. He ate it. Well, a third of it. We had to take it away from him before he digested any more polypropelene. Crazy dog, you're supposed to catch it,.. not eat it!

2. Natalie, my neice, is graduating from Kindergarten next week!! And thank goodness, the graduation is at 8am, so I can actually go!! (I work 2nd shift, so I usually miss all the fun stuff). She's getting so big, and learning so much, and makes us laugh all of the time. Here is the latest Natalie funny,...
She was about 2 when Dan and I got married (5 yrs ago). At that time, she hadn't quite learned the word for husband. Most of the "husbands" she knew were called "Daddy", or "Granpa", so she'd never really heard that word before. She's always loved Dan's parents, and would call them "Mrs Ingum and her friend" instead of Mr and Mrs Ingram. Well, the other day, she wore an outfit to school that Mrs Ingum bought for her. This is the conversation that took place that night...
My mom: I liked your outfit today. It was so pretty.
Nat: Mrs Ingum gave it to me. (after a pause) Memaw,.. you know Mrs Ingum?
My mom: Yes.
Nat: You know her friend?
My mom: Yes. That's Dan's mom and dad.
Nat: Are they married?
My mom: Yes, they are.
Nat: Then why don't we just call him her husband, okay? (and then rolls over and goes to sleep)
She fell asleep watching cartoons last night...

3. If you hear any high pitched squeaking and scratching, do not try to tune your radios,.. it's just me,.. practicing again. My sisters and I make up a trio and are playing in an upcoming wedding for a friend. We are SO excited. We are very close and this is just something we can really enjoy doing together and it gives us a great excuse to spend alot of time together doing something we commonly love. Lavinia (the cellist) is the real talent to this bunch. She has a true natural gift for music, and not to mention Go Go Gadget length fingers! Heidi (the violist) is also quite talented. She not only plays viola, but taught herself violin to play in my wedding (since I obviously was preoccupied that day) with Lavinia and did a FANTASTIC job. And then there's me, the violinist. It seems ironic that the one with the least amount of talent should play the lead, doesn't it? Haha. I guess I bring the comic releif to our little outfit. Anyway, the wedding is in July and we have alot of work to do. In the meantime, Dan has the patience of Job! He is so sweet to put up with my hours of "music". haha!!

This is Lavinia and Heidi playing in my wedding (Nov. 8, 2003)

This is a pic of us as bridesmaids in a wedding in October 2007

This is us having our picture made with our instruments. This was a picture taken of a picture being taken. I'll try to find the actual portrait that was made and upload. In the meantime,.. here we are.

That's all for now...

Trudy-town

2008-05-05T11:02:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone!! Just a quick update on what's going down in Trudy-town...
First of all, "thanks" to everyone who took the time to say a quick prayer for my friend Miss Mildred. She's doing great! She's at home now, but is still feeling very weak. I doubt she'll return to her volunteer work at the hospital, but she is able to maintain a portion of her independence, and that's what we were all most concerned about. Her daughter lives nearby and is able to check on her every afternoon, but for the most part, she's able to be by herself and do her thing. I talked to her on the phone Friday. I told her we had the "Vegas Showgirl" costumes ready, and hers has feathers on the hat, just as she requested. She laughed and said she's come up with some new moves and she'll have to show them to me when she comes for a visit. It's great to hear her laugh. Thanks again!
I finished my semester from you-know-where last week. My finals were hard, but they went great. I got the best grades I've had in a long while! I'm waiting to hear from GWU (Gardner-Webb Univ) now regarding my status in their nursing program. If all goes well, I will start school there in the fall. If not,.. well,.. there's a plan B, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. :)
This past weekend was BUSY, but SO FUN! I got to see Kristy and Brian up at PBC for the Spring Youth Rally. (www.palmettobiblecamp.org) I was only able to sneak away for Saturday, but I pretty much spent the whole day up there. They had some really fun games for the kids, and I got to catch up with my Ninja Turtle on how things are going. It made me realize how much I really miss our "old friends". Not that you are elderly, Kristy,.. we just go way back. So I am super excited that I get to see them on Saturday along with Carol Leah and Tommy and Thomas at the Atlanta Zoo. We are so excited!
Moose is doing great. He's our new puppy. He's a beagle/basset hound mix and he's a ton of fun. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window to see that he has pulled all of his blankets out of his doggie house and dragged them all over the yard. Now he's sitting on one of them, like he's just decided to make his bed in the grass. Crazy dog.
That's all for now,.. I have a long list of "to do's" for today. Hope you are all enjoying the spring! Take care!

Dirty Little Tootsie

2008-04-16T21:41:00.001-04:00

It all started Saturday. The Ingrams (Dan's parents) were in town for the weekend, and we were looking for something to do. Well, I decided we should go to the pound and look at the little puppies. And we did. And we found one that we just loved. And now he's in our backyard. His name is Moose, he's a 4 month old bassett hound/ beagle mix. We started filling out the paperwork on him on Saturday, but they were closing so we had to leave and come back on Sunday. This is where the story gets funny.
At the Spartanburg County Humane Shelter, in the lobby, they have a display. It's a little room on the corner with a bunch of windows and it looks like you're looking into a living room. They have a couch in there and a rug on the floor, and such. They put a "featured pup of the week" inside in hopes someone will adopt them. Well, this was Tootsie's week. Tootsie is a black, long haired, nappy little dog. He's just kinda ugly, but cute in that "oh bless it's little heart" kind of way. As we are waiting for them to pull our paperwork we started the day before, I start looking around the lobby and I see Tootsie standing on the back of the couch in his livingroom. There's a red blanket draped across the back of the couch and he's digging at it with his front paws like he's digging a hole. The more he digs at it, the more it bunches up into a little pile in front of him. I thought it was kinda funny and cute, so I touch Mrs.Ingram's shoulder and said "Look at that little dog!" and point at Tootsie. Right then, Tootsie begins "making love" to the little pile of blanket. Fiercely. So Mrs. Ingram turns around just in the nick of time to see Tootsie humping the blanket, like that's what I wanted her to see. I was so embarassed!!! And if any of you out there know my inlaws, you know they are good hearted, generous, salt-of-the-earth kind of people,... and that pointing out little dogs as they are expressing their undying love physically onto this blanket is just not appropriate at all! I could have died! She just smiled and said "I think Duane and I are gonna go back here and talk to Moose while you two sign the papers". Wow. It's always something with me. Always.

These are some pictures of our dog. More to come later....

2008-04-04T22:57:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note on my friend Miss Mildred...
This morning I went to THREE different card shops in search of one of those GIANT 'get well' cards, with the intention of taking it around the hospital and getting everyone to sign it, right? Well, none of them had one. Not even WalMart! So I settled for two regular sized cards and a color/activity book with some cool twist-up crayons. I took them to the hospital, hoping to get some signatures before they sent her home. I got to the Tower (main entrance of SRMC) and my friend Pam said they were moving Miss Mildred to ICU. She said her blood pressure kept dropping and they couldn't get it to stabilize. She said Miss Mildred had a very shaky night last night and things "just didn't look very good". Everyone was teary eyed. So I got the cards in the right hands to be signed and passed on, and then left to run some errands. When I came back and clocked in around 1pm, they had moved her to CCU (Coronary Care Unit- like ICU, but for the heart specifically). They said her heart rhythms were looking bad, and so they had to put her into some more specialized care. I got off work tonight around 9:30, and took her cards and things to the nurses' station in CCU, fully intending to leave them for her daughter to get in the morning. However, the nurse at the desk asked who I was in relation to the patient and I told her we share a desk at work, she smiled (like they do when something's wrong) and said "Go on in Honey. She's in room 7. You can tell her Hello."
So I walked in and had to hold back tears myself. She looked alot worse than I expected her to. I just put her things on a table by her bed, and then said a quick prayer for her, and let her just sleep. Dr. McLeod says he believes she can make it through this- and for that I am grateful. I just worry about her quality of life afterwards. She's been really down lately about not having enough to do, and needing to be busy and needed. If she has to leave her own house, she'll be devastated. Please just keep praying for her and her family.
Thanks!
Trudy
PS- I'm questioning if I really should become a nurse afterall; I really seem to get attached to the feeble ones.

I Just Told Myself a Joke!

2008-04-03T21:55:00.001-04:00

I just laughed really hard about this and everyone out there in blogland who reads this (all 2 of you) would enjoy.
Tonight at work, my friend Donna and I were sharing corny jokes. This is one of my FAVORITE things to do. I just can't find anything funnier in this world than corny jokes (so if you have any good ones,.. send em my way!). I told her the one my sister just shared with me: Why did the cowboy buy a dachsund (weenier dog)? Because he wanted to get a long little doggie! (Get it? Get along lil' doggie?). Anyway, then she told me hers, and it was of course much better. I can't type it; not because it's distasteful, but becuase you have to hear the voice to get it. Typed out, well, it's just not funny whatsoever. So if you wanna hear it, call me. I'd love to tell it to you. (I've already told Dan like 4 times tonight- he just keeps rolling his eyes at me). Anyway, so I hear this amazing joke, and then I get a call that I need to wheel this woman to our outpatient center. So I'm wheeling her in our wheelchair, which happens to be our last one- so I have to drop her off and then bring our empty chair back (hence the photo above). Well, I get her there, and she gets off my chair and I'm wheeling it down the long hallway back to my desk. I start daydreaming, like I usually do when I'm by myself, and I told myself Donna's joke in my head (oh like you don't do that too!). Well, I get to giggling,.. and laughing,.. and my eyes are watering,... and then these people are passing me in the hallway and what do they see? A hospital employee pushing an empty wheelchair laughing outloud to herself. They must have thought I was nuts! If I had thought about it at the time, I would have acted like my invisible friend was in the chair and started talking to it, just to mess with them. "Oh Mr. Bigglesworth! You have the funniest jokes! Tell me the one about the cowboy and his dog again! Haha!!". How cool would that have been? I know they went to their patient's room and told them all about that looney girl they saw in the hallway. I'm pretty sure they'd be right!

On a sadder note, Miss Mildred, the lady I previously blogged about, had to have emergency surgery tonight. She's okay- just a few organs lighter than she was this morning. The surgery she had normally would be outpatient, but since she's 91 ("and a half!" she would say), they're keeping her a few days till she gets back on her feet. She lives alone and her independence is EVERYTHING to her, so I just wanted to ask you to help me pray for her that she will recover and not need to go to any assisted living or nursing home, if it be God's will. She is a very special lady to me and I just want to see her back to her old spunky self very soon. Thanks!!!

How 'bout that one about the teapot?

2008-03-31T21:49:00.000-04:00

I thought since I haven't blogged on here in a while, I would tell you about the interesting conversation I had with Miss Mildred today. Miss Mildred is the 91 yr old volunteer who shares a desk with me at work. Until a few months ago, she was known as the Queen Volunteer (meaning she was the one who answered the main telephone), but since we moved to a new facility and our volume has at least doubled, the pace has been a bit much for her to keep up with. Instead, she signs in the pre-op patients, which basically consists of asking the person "Are you here for a pre-op appointment? Please sign in here." and then you call to the nurse's desk and say "You have one waiting", and well,.. that's basically it. Mildred hates it. She feels as if she has been dethroned, but it hasn't been for a lack of patience on our part. I've done everything I can short of holding her hand and making her answer the phone- sometimes change is harder on some of us than others, I have learned.
So this afternoon, when the volume had died down a little and there was a few minutes of quietness, I looked at Miss Mildred and asked how she'd been doing. It went a little something like this.
"Well, how are you this afternoon, Miss Mildred?" said Trudy.
"Oh, I guess I'm alright. I'm awful bored, since my demotion an' all." Mildred shrugs and pushes her clipboard with a finger.
"Demotion? What are you talking about? I need you here to handle the pre-ops. It's not a demotion, it's just a different job than before. You shouldn't be so down about it." Trudy is trying very hard to cheer up her little friend.
"Well, I just feel like I'm no use to anybody. I ain't got enough to do here anymore." Mildred replies. Trudy thinks a minute.
"I wasn't giong to say anything to you about this just yet, but I think you should know I've been working on just that very thing."
"Oh really?" Mildred is biting Trudy's bait.
"Yes, really. See all those people out there? Look how worried and restless they are", Trudy nods toward the roomful of family members waiting on their loved ones in surgery, "I haven't run it through the boss yet, but I'm sure they're going to love it. You and I have a special job we're going to do. We're going to be entertainers. I'm thinking we should start up a song and dance routine. How good are you at tap dancing?" Trudy looks at her as seriously as she can. Mildred takes a minute to process this, and then her eye twinkles. She can see Trudy is pulling her leg, and now she's going to pull hers back.
"Well I thought you'd never ask. I can't dance no more, but I been practicing my singing for that 'merican Idol show. I s'pose I could sing and you could dance." She sits up in her chair, and is talking loud enough that the people sitting closest to our desk that have been eavesdropping on our conversation can hear her. Many of them are laughing out loud at Mildred and Trudy now. Mildred is on fire.
"Let's give a go. What do you sing?" Trudy sits on the edge of her chair in excitement.
"Oh I don't know,.. how bout that one about the tea pot?" and with that she starts singing 'I'm a Little Teapot' with all the strength her 91 yr old lungs could muster. Trudy starts tapping her feet on the floor faster and faster. She points to her feet and grabs Mildred's arm in excitement.
"Look! I can feel the beat! Keep going, Mildred! Keep going! We're going to be famous!" Trudy exclaims as she starts clapping her hands (off beat on purpose) and snapping her fingers, swaying back and forth like she's Stevie Wonder. The whole waiting room is watching in total hysteria.
Mildred and Trudy both stop their show because they're laughing too hard to continue. When she gains her breath, she looks back at Miss Mildred.
"Now, it may be too early to think about this, but I have to know your opinion. Costumes. Matching. Red. What do you think?" Trudy asks her.
"Oh definitely! I have been known to wear some sparkly things in the past." Mildred says boastfully.
"Feathery hats. Too much?" Trudy is unable to hide the laughing any longer.
"Too much?! I wouldn't do it without one! Ya know, feathers kinda shake in the wind, and well, that's good because when you get older, you'll notice that somethings shake precisely when you don't want them to. And when you do want others to shake, ya got nothin!" She folds her arms as if in disgust of her own shakiness, and everyone in the room is either laughing, shaking their heads in disbelief of what this elderly woman was saying so boldly, saying 'Amen Sista', or some combination of all three.
Trudy asked Miss Mildred if she thought they could get the news reporter man to come video tape them doing their routine- afterall, she'd never been on TV before and always wanted to know what that was like. Mildred looked at her sternly and said, "Honey, if you got me in a costume like that, singing that teapot song, with a bunch of feathers on my head, you can bet your boots that news man will be here taping every minute of it. Him and the people from the psych ward too!"

Shortly after, Miss Mildred left to go home for the day and I was once again bored and looking for something to do. I know she'll be back on Friday. I think I may print this picture out for her and see what she thinks about our new costumes. What do y'all think?

Soulja Boi Easter

2008-03-23T22:37:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter Everybody!! Today was a really fun day, but it really started yesterday I guess. We had our Easter Egg Hunt at church, which Amber (our preacher's wife) did an awesome job at planning (Way to go, Amber!). It was alot of fun watching the kids doing their crafts, finding eggs, and all. Then last night, we went to dinner with David and Amber at El Mexicano (the mixed fajitas is our "usual"). Amber told us some really great news. She and David are going to be parents!! Yay! Their baby is due sometime in November, making us officially the last people on earth to procreate, but that's another story. haha. We're so excited for them and I know they're going to be wonderful parents. So today was Easter, and this morning in Bible class the kids all showed up with their cute little frilly dresses and the boys had on their nice little button up shirts and clip -on ties. I just love those! My sister and cousin, Allison, came to Boiling Springs with us and then we met my mom and younger sister, Heidi, for lunch afterwards (at Cracker Barrel of course- my favorite!). Natalie was with her dad this weekend, so we really missed having her, but I'm sure she'll enjoy opening what the Easter bunny left her at Memaw's house when she gets back. Then we went home and had the best Sunday afternoon nap ever. Church was really good tonight- a great lesson that I really needed to hear about being content in whatever situation you are in. Then Lavinia, Allison, and Heidi came to our house for pizza and games. Except, we never actually got around to the games. Allison decided we needed to learn how to do the Soulja Boi dance. Thanks to an instructional video on YouTube, I am now fluent in this dance and haven't laughed so hard in I don't know when! We did this dance a hundred times (to Dan's distaste) in our living room until we got it down right. The part I have the hardest time with is the lean with it, rock with it part. I'm so grateful to my urbanically gifted cousin for teaching me so much culture. I have never felt so white!
You know that's how I do,
"Truda Lee" (as Al says it)

A Road Trip, a Funeral, and Some Snow

2008-03-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

I just got home a few hours ago from a three day tour of the southeast, or so it feels. My mother, her cousin Catherine, and myself left around midnight on Thursday and drove to Newnan, GA (got there around 3:30am) and spent the night. We got up early the next morning and drove on to Montgomery, AL, to Greenwood Cemetery, for Aunt Nathalie's funeral. Most of you know her as the old switchboard operator at Faulkner University, or as Miss Nathalie McFarland of Panama Street Church of Christ. She was my grandmother's sister, and since my grandmother passed before I was ever born, she was more of a grandmother to me than an aunt. Alzheimer's Disease claimed her mind years ago, and her physical health began declining rapidly over the last 6 months to a year. I heard so many wonderful stories of her early adulthood, about how she and Uncle Roy (her first husband who passed away in the 80's) lived with Grandmother Trudie Jackson in Valdosta, GA when they first got married, about how she used to carry my grandmother around when she was a baby and said she was her "baby doll", about how many orphaned children she adopted from a german orphanage and she raised them to be christian adults, about all of the homesick college freshman that sat in her little office to be comforted, and about all of the college students at church who listened as she gave them her no nonsense advice on everything (whether they asked for it or not!). It was such a comfort and blessing for me to hear all of this and remember her in that way.
After the funeral and the meal with the family (Redland Rd Church of Christ has some EXCELLENT cooks by the way), we visited for a little while with my in-laws, and then we drove to Indian Trail (north of Atlanta) to spend the night with my mom's other cousin, Jennifer, where we stayed up really late discussing who was related to who and where were all the grandkids now and so on and so on into the wee hours of the morning. When we woke up this morning, it was SNOWING in Atlanta. I mean REALLY snowing. It was coming down really hard, but thankfully it didn't stick to anything. It was really pretty though to watch it fall. It looked like we were in a snow globe because the wind kept picking it up and swirling it around. We ate a big breakfast at Cracker Barrell (Aunt Nathalie would be so proud!) and then we drove to Greenville, SC to my mom's house where I spent a little time with my sister before driving home this afternoon.
Needless to say, I'm exhausted, and I should be unpacking and doing laundry before my weekend is gone. But instead, we're about to go out to eat and Dan will be the wonderful husband he is and sit and listen patiently to all of the crazy stories I've heard. As he should. She deserves to be remembered, and everyone should be so lucky as to have a grandmother or aunt like Nathalie Forsee McFarland.

PS- To any of you in Montgomery, her obituary will be in the newspaper tomorrow. They wanted to put it in the Sunday paper because that's the paper most people get anyway.

Who moved the rock?!

2008-03-05T21:57:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, I work at a local hospital and spend most of my day attending to a waiting room full of people. Waiting rooms are the great equalizers of our society, as I have come to learn. You have all walks of life there: every socioeconomic class, every race and ethnicity, all ages and all personalities are represented there daily. This makes for some GREAT people watching. Let me share what I observed last night.

So I'm sitting at the desk and there are three families sitting in front of me. You have "Suit and Tie Man" on the left, reading TIME magazine between his calls on his Blackberry. Then there's the "Hen Party" on the right side, consisting of a well dressed mother in her 50's and her stylish daughter in her late 20's. They shared a couch and chatted away about their kids, neices and nephews. Then there were the "Rock Dwellers". Sitting in the middle of the room was a family so strange and oblivious to their surroundings that you just knew something interesting was bound to happen by the end of the night as long as they were around! This was a grandmother, who was probably only in her 50's as well, but perhaps years of smoking (her hacking cough was a clue) made her look closer to 75. She was apparently fighting this aggressively with a bottle of blonde hair dye. It wasn't working. Her daughter was there also. She was a much more attractive lady. She kept a 5 foot distance between her and her mother the whole time, but still maintained a friendly conversation with her. The granddaughter was a young teenager, who looked like she just finished changing the oil in her car. By the looks of things, the rock-dwelling syndrome seemed to skip a generation in this particular family. Well, as the night went on, the Hen Party and the Rock Dwellers merged their conversations and began discussing the latest trends. Mama Hen disclosed that she recently got a tongue ring, and then stuck out said tongue to prove it. "I was worried it would look tacky, or make me talk funny, in which case I would have taken it out, but most people say they can't even tell I have it!", she said to Mama Rockdweller. She was right; I would have never known.
"Well, my oldest son thinks he wants a tattoo, and I just refuse to let him!" said the attractive rockdweller.
"Oh yeah, tattoos are forever! Young people get them and don't even think about it. And then it gets all saggy adn faded when their older and it looks so trashy! I'd rather my child get something peirced instead!" said the younger hen.
"I went to Myrtle Beach 'bout 5 year ago and got this while I was there.." said granny rockdweller, as she began pulling on her left bra strap. Yes, that's right. I said bra strap. She turned her shoulders so Mr. Suit and Tie wouldn't be able to get a full frontal view, then she whipped out the tattooed body part and proudly pointed at her tattoo. Yes, exactly what you're thinking. The hens just dropped their jaws open and said what polite hens say at times like that - "Oh wow! No, that's not saggy at all!", "Is that a,... butterfly?"
The granddaughter of the rock dwellers beamed with pride at her grandmother, while the attractive of the three looked utterly (no pun intended) mortified. Mr. Suit and Tie buried his entire face in TIME.
The whole "display" lasted only about 5 seconds, and the tattooed body part was returned to it's harness, safe and secure and covered. Almost as if on cue, the hens got a call from recovery to go see their patient, and the rock dwellers were sent to their patient's room in the hospital. As quickly as it happened, the most bizarre event of the day was over and the room was again filled with silence, except for the occasional coffee sip. People say I have a boring job,.. and for the most part I do. But every once in a while, people will come to the room who make me stare in wonder and ask myself "Who moved the rock?"

Hi! I'm new here!!

2008-03-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! This first little blog of mine will be a short and sweet as we are about to leave to go to my parents' house for a "family gamenight"! I'm so excited,.. I really don't get to see my family all that often, even though they only live 45 miles away. I've been looking forward to this all week long! I am also really excited about starting this whole blogging-thing, especially since I've had so much fun over the last hour reading all of my friends' blogs and looking at their pictures (can't get enough Helen and Thomas pictures!!). Well, it is time for me to go pig out and play some serious Apples to Apples and Balderdash! To all of my friends near and far,.. I love you and miss you and hope to see you soon! Til then, keep posting pictures and stories. I love them!!

Love to you all!
Trudy