P.O.W

So today Ben and I went to the Veterans hospital in Lebanon PA for an MRI. We are like the youngest people in the hospital. There are always a bunch of old guys hanging around swapping war stories wearing their hats with VA pins all over them.

We were a little early so we were waiting outside for the MRI office to open. I was sitting on a bench swinging my feet back and forth cuz I couldn't reach the ground and Ben was standing next to the office door. This older man in a wheelchair comes wheeling by us. He pulls right up next to me and says to me "Can I see your hand?"

I could barely understand him, I thought maybe he had a mental disorder. I smiled and gave him my hand palm up. He took my hand and turned it over and pulled up the sleeve of my jacket and kissed my hand! He is still holding my hand when he says to me "I was a P.O.W do you know what that is?"

I said "Really? Its a Prisoner of War isn't it?" I was really amazed that I actually was meeting someone who was taken prisoner in a war. I was like whoa.

Then he says to me "No its a 'Pervert on Wheels'

I started laughing it was so hilarious. Then he says "It also stands for 'Prisoner of Wife'

Then he wheels off down the hall.

Ben and I looked at each other and we were just cracking up. That had to be the funniest thing that has happened to me in a while. I must have been the youngest looking lady he has seen in a long time :)

ER doctors know next to nothing

Soooooo. I think that pretty much sums it up

Natalie has been very sick for the past 2 weeks or so. She was vomiting all over the place. She would just sit on the couch and be miserable. Its been awful.

THEN. Her gums started bleeding. I thought it was because she was getting some new teeth and I didn't think anything of it. So I stopped brushing her teeth for a few days until her gums got back to normal.

Then she woke up from her nap and had blood all down the front of her shirt dripping onto her pants! I called the DR and he said that was not normal. I got a flashlight and took a look up in there and come to find out she has no NEW teeth. Its the old ones that are bleeding. All you have to do is lightly touch her gums and they start to bleed like you've never seen before.

So the on call DR told me to take her to the ER.

*sigh*

This kid has been to the ER 4 times in her year and a half on this earth. She KNOWS what that is all about. So I take her in and we wait....and we wait...and we wait some more. Then the ER doc asks me if I brush her teeth. OF COURSE I BRUSH HER TEETH!!! DO YOU THINK I WOULD BRING MY KID TO THE ER FOR GINGIVITIS?????

I explained to him that I had stopped since they started bleeding so MUCH... Much being the keyword here. So of course he takes blood to see if she has some rare blood disease.

So all anybody has to do is WALK into Natalie's room and LOOK like a DR and Natalie goes crazy. So when the nurses come to take her blood she is already flipped out because they are just THERE. Then I have to hold her down on the table while she screams and hyperventilates. I laid next to her on the bed to she could hold my ear and run my hair through her fingers. That is the only thing that comforts her. I look in her eyes and tell her she is such a tough girl and she is so brave. The nurses said she was a good girl and she didn't squirm at all for them. Poor baby.

I keep telling the stupid ER DR I think she has an infection or abscess . He asks me 'Do you take her to the dentist?"

SHE IS 1 1/2 YEARS OLD!!!! NO I DON'T TAKE HER TO THE DENTIST!!

He is like 'Hrmmm yea usually we don't take kids to the dentist until they are three"

*bonks self in head*

"Oooookay... So can I get some antibiotics JUST IN CASE its an infection in her gums?"

"Hrmm yea I will go ahead and do that" "Her blood work came back normal she doesn't have any blood disorders. "You should check in with your pediatrician later this week"

*smacks head against wall*

So by now its 1 am. Natalie is thoroughly traumatized yet again and we have the bubble gum flavored antibiotics in hand. Ive been accused of being a neglectful parent, and all is right with the world.

Curious Toddler = No New Blogs

So I know, I know. Its been months since I updated this blog. It must be very disappointing to all my adoring fans when they click on my link saved in their favorites and then.......nothing new from Stephanie. *frown*

Well I must say that I have quite a silly little monkey running around the house who takes up most of my time these days. She has gotten so good at running that I have a hard time keeping up with her before she gets a hold of something sharp or dangerous. Sometimes I turn around and scream "Where the heck did you get those scissors?!?"

I might add that the scissors were pink. So Natalie automatically thinks they are hers. It is understood in our household that anything pink is HERS! It is also known that anything with a handle on it is HER purse.

Anyways My new years resolutions are as follows:

1. Keep a better blog
2. Keep a better personal journal
3. Print out old blogs and put them in a binder
4. Take better care of my body
5. Get my home/life better organized
6. Get pictures printed out from digital cameras
7. Pay off as much debt as possible

So no crazy weight loss/ working out resolutions for me. They are dumb. I hate it when people say they wanna loose weight for a resolution. Blah

So hopefully in the very near future I will have a new blog about my sweet girl, with lots of pictures!!

So much has happened in the past few weeks. I haven't blogged about any of it and I am so upset with myself. But I am going to do better!!

Movin and Groovin

So the move is in full swing. Ive been stressed to the ultimate max. I think my hair might actually be falling out.......interesting

On the upside, I am so happy to be around 'my people'. Whenever Ben and I live on our own far away from family, we just wouldn't do much socially. Isn't that awful? It was a pretty boring life. We always moved so often that it was difficult to make a lot of friends. Plus other people around us moved so frequently that by the end of the year that we lived in GA we were the only 'original' family on our street. Everybody who lived there when we moved in had moved out by the time we left. We did make a lot of good friends in Germany, but I can't figure out why we didn't make as many good friends in GA. Its WEIRD.

Anywayz.

So now its the other extreme. EVERYDAY its something new, a new place to go, a new thing to do, family members to hang out with, go to dinner with.... I FREAKING love it!

We are still doing the Job search thing. Which is exhausting, but I hope it will all work out in the end. I'm living on faith right now. I just gotta keep telling myself its all going to work out somehow.


In other Natalie news,
She has improved her walking skills so much in just a few days! She is walking like a pro and I am so proud of her. She is such a tough girl! Whenever she falls down or hits or head on something she doesn't cry! She will flop over and bang her head on the floor and everybody in the room holds their breath to see if she is going to scream, and she just looks up at everybody and keeps on truckin. But whenever she does get hurt bad enough to cry, I pick her up and tell her she is such a tough and strong girl. She usually just stops crying and goes about her business.

I love her so much

My Daughter Walks!

Its a miracle! Natalie is finally walking. It only took her until she was almost 15 months old but better late then never. It seems like one day she just woke up and started walking. Now she walks everywhere. I was so worried something was wrong with her because she hadn't walked yet. But yet again I learned that all kids do their own thing in their own time.

She went to the Dr to get her last set of shots and she was so upset with us! She was clinging to her Magenta puppy dog the whole time. Natalie is also a little anxious about the change in our routine lately. We have been doing a lot of moving preparation and she is all out of sorts.

The movers come tomorrow! I wonder how Natalie will react. I can't wait until we move! I'm so excited!

News

So its finally going to happen. Ben is getting out of the Air Force and we are going to have a 'normal' life again. We will be moving in with my parents in PA while Ben is searching for a good job. Its very scary to start over again with no money, but I am so thankful we have family that is willing to help us out in our time of need. Thank goodness my parents have a 4,000 square foot house :)

I have been agonizing over this for almost a year now. I have been a nervous wreck for so long. I have been worried how we are going to pay our bills with no income, or how we are going to afford health care for Ben and Natalie who both have major health issues. All of their prescriptions are VERY expensive.

But now that it is all finally happening I am just so relieved and at peace with it all. I don't really know how it is all going to work out but I trust that God has a plan for us and everything will be okay.

I am so excited to be moving close to our family again. I am so happy Natalie will be able to grow up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all around her, just like I did when I was growing up. Ive really missed my family these past 5 years. We have missed so many Christmases, birthdays, thanksgivings, all kinds of things. You don't realize how important your family is to you until you don't have them in your life anymore.

The next few weeks are going to be crazy..... but its all worth it.

9/11/01

I remember where I was when I found out what happened in on 9/11. I was 16 years old at the time. I had gotten home from Seminary class (seems like another life ago) and I was homeschooled at the time so I went back to sleep. I had just started dating Ben about 9 months earlier and I was having a weird dream that Ben and I were on a plane. I remember the plane had blue colored seats and it was dark. We must have been flying at night. In my dream I told Ben I was scared of plane crashes.



For some reason my dads job at the time meant that he had to drive back past our house at this particular time of the day. My mom and I were snoozing in bed and he runs in the room and says



"Have you heard whats happened? Ive been listening to the radio in my truck."



He turns on the TV and they have been replaying the first explosion. I honestly thought it was a movie. Coming out of my sleepy haze I am thinking he has turned on a movie.....but this TV has no DVD player.



Then all of a sudden the second plane hits. All of us in the room jump. My dad was like



"This is NO accident! This is on purpose."



We all kept watching the screen as the TV reporters slowly started to realize this was an attack and not an accident.



While we were watching it live, they were showing footage of the buildings burning. One of the camera men for the news was zoomed in on the people hanging out the windows for fresh air.



Then one jumped.



The camera mans feed was cut and the news went to another camera mans view point.



Everyone was in absolute shock. That is the only word I can use to describe it. Just shock. Could this really be happening? Why would they attack those buildings??



Everyone knows what happened after that. The pentagon, United 93 the passengers who fought back.



This seriously brings goose bumps to my body just thinking about it. NOTHING and NOBODY has been the same since that day.



I pray for all those family's of loved ones who didn't come home that day. I can't even begin to imagine the pain of that kind of loss, and I honestly I hope I never have to.



The men and women of the NYFD who risked their lives to GO INTO those buildings to save complete strangers lives deserve so much of our gratitude. Everyone realized this and I can remember such an out pouring of support for the NYFD. The firemen always just humbly said



"They were just doing their job."



In the aftermath of it all, the thing that struck me the most was how everyone rallied together in a spirit of patriotism. If anything good came out of this horrible act of terrorism, it would be the common sense of patriotism.



I know that MY personal love for this country grew more that day, and the days following then I ever thought it could. I remember when I moved overseas to Germany, it just so happened that the Summer Olympics were on then. Whenever they would play the United States National Anthem, I would literally cry and cry. I missed my country so much.



I have flown A LOT since 9/11. EVERY single time I get on a plane I think about the passengers of United 93.



Could I be that brave? I hope so.