Friday Funny

My brain is dead from this last week of work, so no mind-bending posts for me tonight. How about a funny I stole from Guy instead? Yeah, let's do that. Thanks, Guy.

FIVE Surgeons
While having lunch five surgeons from big cities were discussing who makes the best patients to operate on. The first surgeon, who hailed from New York , said, "I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.."

The second surgeon, from Chicago responded, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded."

The third surgeon, from Dallas , spoke up and said, "No, I really think librarians are the best, everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

The fourth surgeon, from Los Angeles chimed in, "You know, I like construction workers... Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over."

But the fifth surgeon, from Washington DC , shut them all up when he observed: "You're all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains, and no spine. Plus, the head and the ass are interchangeable."

Have a great weekend everyone.

Creative on the brain

I have some posts brewing, stirring around, about to spill over. Soon...... very soon.

If y'all are following along with facebook or any of the other blogs, you know my Dad and Mom are doing better. Dad seems to be in the Taj Mahal of nursing homes as my parents can't stop praising it and the people that run it. I feel really good about that. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and thoughts during this time. Of course I don't know everyone who was out there on our side, and that's such a powerful thing to claim. Much love to all of you. Thank you.

Maybe tomorrow my brain will be in a writing mood. We shall see.

Home and Home

Mom is resting at home, as much as that is possible with her.
Dad is now at a nursing home to monitor his issues and help him recover.

I feel a little more at ease today. Yesterday was kind of a breaking point for me. I had so much pent-up emotion and feelings inside that I had no idea how to sort them out. Things like worry for my parent's health to fear of their death. And then my own selfish issues of being mad I lived so far away and anxious for reasons to make the trip. My Mom and my sister assured me of many emotions and I am thankful for such a God-fearing/loving family that rests the big stuff on Him. I'm also thankful to Ell for being on top of things and even willing to go down to Columbus without me to review charts and calm other's nerves about diagnosis'. Even though life is anything but back to normal, all of those things broke for me yesterday and I found myself singing in my office. When I realized I was doing it I almost cried. It was so calming.

Thank you all for your prayers. Having my own support system of friends is amazing, and knowing you were praying for someone (most of) you haven't met is awesome. Thank You to all of you. You are so loved.

A family update

A quick update for all of you following along and praying for us (and aren't on Facebook)...

Mom was released from the hospital on Monday. Thankfully there were no heart attack proteins/enzymes present. She did have some potential blockage issues that may or may not be stress related, and she is going to have to be careful with that. She is still convinced her hospital stay was God-sent to get Dad to go to the hospital. He just felt too safe with her around. So when Dad went into the hospital, Mom got better.

Dad's report isn't as good. He was admitted into a hospital after a nine hour stay in a different emergency room that didn't have an ICU room available. (Kudos to my sister Kristen for staying with him the whole time. What a trooper.) When he got there he had a cat scan and a double stent inserted into his kidneys. He had a lot of pain and it was hard to manage it, but after a few days they wanted to send him home. Unfortunately, with Mom in her present condition of supposed to be taking it easy, she wouldn't be able to take care of him the way he needed. According to updates from my sister, Kristen, I think they are trying to get him into a nursing home that can take care of all his needs not just the kidney stuff. I haven't had this confirmed though.

Thank you to all who have been praying for my family. If I can be so bold, I beg of you to continue your prayers. They are still in need of it big time. Thank you all, again. I'll try to update sooner than later.

The hits just keep coming

So now my Dad is headed to the hospital. Not sure why or all the complications he's having, but he's probably on his way as I write this.

I called my Mom tonight and she was very concerned about him. My sisters have been doing an amazing job taking care of my parents but Mom was convinced my Dad needed me. So I called and talked him into going to the hospital. My Mom is usually the stubborn one about doctors, etc., but Dad just wasn't making any decisions. I kind of took away the option of 'going' and instead made him decide on 'which' hospital he was going to. I'm not sure if my phone call made him act but I think he needed me to talk him through it.

Mom called me after and thanked me and wondered if her heart attack scare was God's way of getting her out of the house and getting Dad to go to the hospital. He feels safe when she's there and not having her around seems to have made an impact.

So I'm asking for your prayers again. My Mom isn't out of the woods and is still in the hospital with her heart. And now my Dad. Please, anyone who does, please pray. Thanks, friends.

Anyone know how to pray?

My Mom is in the hospital. It's her heart.

My sister called me today but she nor I knew everything that is going on or what all the medical terms mean so I had her call Ell and explain everything. Ell is good at taking medical terms and making them easy to understand. I guess she might have Angina which is heavy heart pain, and the beginnings of a heart attack.

I was alright with that news because those things can be fixed and/or stopped, and I had no plans of driving down to see her. But I just called her at the hospital and listened to her pained voice. I broke down. Hard. I'm not prepared for this at all. I don't know what to do. About going there, about crying, about how to feel or what to expect.

Can anyone/everyone pray for her? Please.
I'll try to update if I can get to a computer.

Now that's a lot of snow

I can't go without commenting on the snow. Twenty two (officially at the airport, although I know some places had more) inches on Friday night into Saturday, and then another six to eight last night. Add to that winds of twenty five mph last night which drifted the additional three inches that fell today. Fun, right?

I've seen some big snow in my life. The winter after I graduated from high school there were 18 blizzards within the season, including two weeks of local schools called off in a row and one record-setting cold day where it hit negative 33 degrees. And then there was, "THE" blizzard of '77 where the snowfall wasn't just the story but the drifting snow. But even though I lived through those, this is the most snowfall I can remember. According to the folks that record that kind of stuff, Saturday's snowfall was the fourth hightest single-storm snowfall since 1870-something. Crazy.

This pic is of my old Volkswagen buried in snow. The snow had kind of melted by the time I took the picture. When I first saw it in the morning you couldn't see anything but the front of the hood.

In the afternoon I dug a walking path from the door to the driveway, and another one from that path to the woodpile. The drifting over the last couple nights has buried the main path and caused us to re-dig it outtwice. While it's annoying to repeat that task, and despite the fact that I hate winter, I'm finding this whole ordeal pretty sweet. It's really interesting to see the force of Mother Nature and people trying (and not-really winning) to beat it. It's cool to be alive during such an intense time.

Anyone else have stories or thoughts to share?

Updates

I had a few thoughts in my head to blog about but nothing materialized worth attempting. So how 'bout an update?

- My four year old niece is finally home from the hospital and I am very excited to hear that news. Check out my sister's blog (Karin) to read about her horrible ordeal. (Not an ordeal that is over, but better for now.)

- My Mom told me my Dad's going through a rough spell with his health. I miss that guy.

- I got the first printed copy of my book in the mail last week. It was a format test to see if my layout worked and with the exception of one glitch it's pretty awesome. I also talked to the husband of my editor-lady and she should have her thoughts to me in a few weeks.

- "THE" party is at the end of this month and we are deep in the prep stages for it. We are uber-excited.

- Ell is back to school and we are back to seeing each other for mere minutes, two days a week. (I wish I was exaggerating.)

- I'm thinking about doing something about my waistline. Not a Friday Funny... I'm serious.

- Ell is doing a Mental-Assessment Clinical this semester. It's at a mental clinic, she doesn't have to wear her scrubs, and she gets to talk to crazies once a week. Very interesting scene.

- I'm getting re-licensed to sell securities. My first four-hour test is Monday. I'm not very prepared. Cram session this weekend, I guess.

- As I'm writing this we are getting that severe snow storm from the south. I only got here a little over an hour ago and there's already two inches covering what I had cleaned off. And it's much much worse in other areas. Should be a fun drive home in a truck.

Have a great weekend everyone.