gotta catch the next wave!

we have been so busy with life the last six weeks or so that i'm not quite sure if i'm coming or going!

we've made two trips to michigan, (we drove both times), to be with family and for a funeral, all within two weeks time. of course with js's stroke there have been the many doctors' and specialists' appointments that have to be scheduled to fit in with the rest of our life at that moment. now with summer coming i don't see much lag time until the end of august/beginning of september! but wait! it will be busy then too because pbs will be starting preschool. i need a break just thinking about it all!

i'm not complaining. just wishing for a slower, simpler time, maybe? i am glad that april is over, but i'm not quite sure what happened during that month or the last couple of weeks either. i can't believe it's the middle of may! i'm barely hanging on by a thread! i guess i'd better catch the next wave and try to ride it as best i can.

here comes that next wave! i've gotta catch it otherwise i'll sink! i'm holding on with everything i have, trying to see what's coming next. i've gotta ride it the best i can to wherever it may take me. i've got to see what's ahead and not worry and stress about it but realize that there's not much i can do but ride it out. gotta catch the next wave!

may the fourth be with you...and other fun stuff

may the fourth be with you! (and if you've grown up going to church, you might say...and also with you!) a funny way to play with words and church practices.

i saw a funny cartoon about may the fourth earlier today. it said something like, "if today is "may the fourth be with you" and tomorrow is cinco de mayo, does that make monday "revenge of the sixth"? (these are star wars references. i'm not a huge star wars fan but these are kind of funny to me.)

these got me thinking about the different sayings about the months, even one about how many days each month has in it. 

     thirty days hath september,

     april, june, and november,
     february has twenty-eight alone,
     all the rest have thirty-one;
     excepting leap year,-that 's the time
     when february's days are twenty-nine.
                              - - - author unknown

then you also have those about each month. i grew up hearing these...

     march comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

     april showers bring may flowers. (i really hope that our "showers" are over and that "flowers" are

     definitely in our future!)

then when we lived on the west coast we heard a couple more that were directly related to the weather...

     may gray

     june gloom

     july fry and august dust (we made these up because it would get so hot in july and august.)

i never realized there are so many poems, quotes and sayings about the months and days of the week. here's one more:

     january cold and desolate;

     february dripping wet;
     march wind ranges;
     april changes;
     birds sing in tune
     to flowers of may,
     and sunny June
     brings longest day;
     in scorched july
     the storm-clouds fly,
     lightning-torn;
     august bears corn,
     september fruit;
     in rough october
     earth must disrobe her;
     stars fall and shoot
     in keen november;
     and night is long
     and cold is strong
     in bleak december.
                         - - - christina giorgina rossetti "the months"

i remember this one from when i was little, about the days of the week.

     monday's child is fair of face,     tuesday's child is full of grace,     wednesday's child is full of woe,     thursday's child has far to go.     friday's child is loving and giving,     saturday's child works hard for a living,     but the child born on the sabbath day,     is fair and wise and good and gay.                         - - - mother goose

i was just curious what i could find and wanted to see if there were more that i didn't know. there were several that i didn't know but i just wanted to focus on the ones that i was a little bit familiar with. 

so "may the fourth be with you"!

are we finished with the emergencies for a while???

since april first we've had something happen every two weeks, and every time on a monday. first was the neighbor's house catching fire, luckily we didn't have any damage. the next thing was js' stroke. he's doing very well with his recovery. the doctors and therapists all seem to be impressed with the rate at which he is recovering. this past monday, js' uncle passed away. it's been an extremely rough and stressful few weeks.

js was very close to his uncle. his uncle taught him how to cook and appreciate the finer things in life. his uncle was diagnosed with liver cancer at the beginning of march. not even two months later we got the call that he was moved to hospice and then he had died.

js is having a pretty hard time accepting all of this. i totally understand. i lost my aunt to breast cancer when i was 20. i don't know that i have completely dealt with it and that is almost 20 years ago. i guess we all deal with death differently.

i'm so happy that it is may now. we're hoping for no more emergencies for a very long while.

a year ago

a year ago today we closed on our house. so much has happened in a year. life never slows down to let us catch up, it keeps on going whether we're ready or not.

pbs was two a year ago. he was just getting into the whole walking/running thing. he was starting to talk more. we were gathering, packing, moving and unpacking boxes a year ago. we started painting rooms. we're still painting rooms a year later but we're farther along than we were a year ago. we were figuring out home ownership for the first time. we're still figuring out home ownership a year later but we know more than we did a year ago.

a year ago we didn't have any idea that a year later js would be recovering from a stroke. life really changes when big events happen. it changes with small events too, but it seems more manageable.

a year ago.

er and hospital fun

a little over a week ago js had a small stroke. he was sitting at his desk at work and got a splitting headache, numbness in his left arm and hand and right side of his face, he couldn't swallow and he leaned to the right and couldn't walk with out help. he googled his symptoms and saw that it could possibly be a stroke. he called me to let me know that his assistant was taking him to urgent care. his assistant then picked up pbs and me to get us to js asap.

while at urgent care, he had another episode of the above symptoms. they were really concerned and told him that he was going to the er by ambulance. he wasn't happy about that but he went because there was nothing else he could do. he texted me to let me know that he was on his way to the er.

at the er, they did a ct scan and it came back normal. then they did an mri and found a small spot, the size of a pin head on his brain stem. it was in the only place that controls both sides of the body. the doctors were/are baffled because js is in good health, is young (34) and has no family history of this sort of thing.

i made a few phone calls but texting and facebook were my main source of getting the word out. here is my fiirst post.:

js has been in the er since 11:00 this morning with a splitting headache, numbness on the right side of his face and in his left arm and hand, he can't swallow, he leans to the right when he walks. They've done a ct scan and an MRI. They think he might have had a mini stroke or an atypical migraine. Still waiting on full results. They're going to admit him. He had a small stroke. Prayers please!

i posted several times and sent several texts and emails to family and friends.


we're still in the er right now. i guess we're waiting on a room to open up. we'll probably be here at least one night, maybe more. pbs is with some very good friends. js has had visitors already. his spirits are up and he's cracking jokes. thanks for all of the prayers and support!


he's been moved to a double room on the intermediate care floor. he's exhausted and can't swallow, so a little frustrated because he can't sleep from all of the poking, prodding, etc. his spirits are still okay just needs/wants to know what's going on and why. so do i. pbs is having a great time with our friends. lots of prayers please! i know they work!


he's hungry and thirsty too but they won't let him eat until he's been evaluated by the speech therapist.


he just found out he won't be going home today.

js is sitting up in a chair and has been cleared to eat and drink by the speech pathologist! he's still dizzy, still has a headache and the right side of his face is numb. he's been asking for coffee all morning and now he can have it! the hospital personnel have been great, very professional and friendly.

these posts went on all week. it was a pretty rough week for all three of us. here's part of an email from the first day in the er.:

it means so much to know that so many people have been thinking and praying for him, for us.

it is/was pretty scary to think about what could have happened. that's what i did while he was getting the ct scan and mri yesterday. i felt so small and inconsequential. i had absolutely no control, so all i could do is pray and ask for prayers from others. i had about three hours to do this.

he had his sense of humor yesterday but he looked much worse. he couldn't swallow but he can now, so he was able to eat and drink today. he's on a regular diet pretty much and can eat whatever he wants. i think being able to eat and drink really helped bring his spirits up even more.

he'll have to have some pretty intensive pt for the next several weeks but otherwise he will be almost back to normal by the time he's discharged.

and another...:

it just breaks my heart thinking of you sitting there in the hospital waiting to hear about js' condition for three hours.  i hope you know that you have a whole community behind you.

i hope all goes well getting js discharged and home soon. thanks for the updates and I hope to talk to you again soon.

my last and final post from the hospital.:

Waiting on the wheelchair and we're outta here!

i'm so happy to report that he was discharged on friday! we came home, picked up pbs and have been laying low pretty much ever since. js is working a little from home and of course going to his doctor's and pt appointments. he's doing really well and just needs to work on his balance to get back to 100%.