I'm here to pick up my body parts....

Today at work, a very sweet and feeble old gentleman came in to the admissions desk and waited in line. When my coworker asked him if she could help him, he replied "Yes'm. I'm here to pick up my body parts." Everything stopped. We looked at each other, and then looked at him, and then back to each other. She said "Excuse me, sir, You're here to do what now?" He stepped up closer and leaned in over the desk, as if my friend was hard of hearing. "I'M HERE TO PICK UP MY BODY PARTS" he yelled. Carefully, she asked, "Which part are you here to pick up today, sir?" I knew this was a loaded question, and I couldn't wait for his answer. "I think it's a screw or soemthing for my knee. Dr. X said they'd be here today. He's gonna put em in my hip next week." I could almost see the lightbulb go off above my friend's head. "Oh! You're here for preop! Are you having a hip replacement surgery next week?" she asked him, handing him the sign-in sheet. "That's what I been trying to tell ya!," he replied, scribbling his name on the clipboard, "And the doc said he had to order some parts and they'd be here. I guess I'm here to pick em up".
Well, needless to say, we didn't give him his body parts today, but he did get the ones he has already checked out and should recieve the new shiny ones next week.

But,.. but,.. they're my trifocals!!

I rarely go an entire night at work without SOMETHING striking me as funny. Tonight was no exception.

Where I live, there is a large population of Russian natives. Like any group of people who are made up of mostly immigrants, alot of them do not speak english. At the hospital I work in, we have several Russian translators, but they are always very busy and it's hard to get one when you need them sometimes. Tonight, we had a Russian-speaking guest that I needed to relay a message to, but she understood just enough english to tell me her interpreter would "Be back in 50 second", holding up one finger. Whatever. I decided that I would be snazzy and use Bing translator. If you've never used it, it's pretty awesome. You type in anything in the english side, and it will translate to whatever language you need. I typed the message I needed to tell her in, and pressed "translate". Within seconds, I had her message, printed in Russian, in my hand. I thought she would be relieved, excited, happy,... but no. She was frustrated because she didn't have her glasses with her (at least that's what I understood from her hand motions). I pointed to the message and spoke simply and clearly "Can you read this? Okay? This is okay?" She shook her head and pointed to an elderly white man (who might speak Gaffney, but I'm willing to bet he couldn't speak Russian) and said "Aha!! You!!! Mister!! You!!!" and ran to him. Now, picture a very well developed middle aged woman, with a thick accent, running at you in a hospital, pointing and screaming "You! You". This man was frightened, and I only wish there were words to express the sheer horror on his face. It was hysterical. I'm following her, saying "Ma'am! Ma'am! It's in Russian! He can't read it!" She had other plans. She reaches for his glasses on his face, and of course he jerks his head away from her and is trying to understand what she's doing and why is this crazy woman stealing his glasses OFF HIS FACE. "Glazzezz! You give me, Mister, please. I use you glazzezz, okay Mister?" As she is putting them on to read the russian message, he keeps saying in protest "But those are my TRIFOCALS! They're no good for you!" Well, neither were his words of protest, because she kept right on squinting through the large manly framed glasses on her face. She hands them back and says "Not good. Not good glazzezz." and shakes her head like he had really dissappointed her in some major way. Just then, the interpreter's "50 second" break was up, and she returned and translated my message for this guest and all was well. Sorta. I went back to the gentleman with the trifocals, to try to apologize for the crazy situation that had just occurred. "Sir, I'm so sorry about that. I tried to stop her, but I do'nt think she understood me. Thank you for being so patient and kind with that whole situation", to which he snickered and said "That's alright, Hon. These are trifocals. I knew she wouldn't see a thing with 'em anyhow!" and winked as if he'd pulled a fast one on the babushka.

Up and Running

Okay, I think I have fixed my tech problems (without Dan's help, let it be noted).

Since it's waaaay past my bedtime and I'm going to NICU for clinicals tomorrow (very VERY hard to stay awake in there), I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

Today is February 20th (for at least another 52 minutes), and it's been 3 yrs since I started this whole blogging bit. Alot has happened in those years,... alot that I've written about and alot that I haven't. I've had rejection letters from school, acceptance letters to a better program in school, Dan's gotten a better job and loves it, friends have gotten married, some have gotten divorced, some have become parents, some have lost children, some have become christians, some have come to visit and some had us to visit them. I've lost family members and watched family members grow. I watched prayers being answered as my husband recovered from a bad illness.

Now, looking ahead from here, I see a graduation on the horizon. I see a possible job opportunity that I hope will be there when I do finish, and if the Lord sees it a good fit for me, it will. I see a little girl growing up fast and learning hard lessons way too early, but handling them with a maturity I never had at her age. As she put it to me recently, "Everytime I think about doing something, I stop and think, Does this make God happy? If not, then I don't do it." Coming from a 9 yr old, this is truly humbling. I look down the road and I see us getting ready for a new home, a new schedule that doesn't require me being gone 15+ hrs a day, vacations and new responsibilities.

I know this road is going to be windy and curvy and there are turns I can't see around. I know I can't possibly be prepared completely for what's beyond the point of vision. There is no way that I can see where this road ends, nor would I want to.

We're experiencing some technical difficulties!!

Hey everyone,.. or no one really,.. because chances are, you can't see this. I'm not sure what's up with it, but my blog has been hiding from me for a few months. I redecorated and everything, but I can only see it when I log into it and view it from my dashboard. I can't find it if I try to look for it myself. Weird. I know. Just sayin', I'm working on it.

That's all for now.

All You Need is LOvE!

I love it when my husband calls me during the workday to tell me something he's excited about.

I love it when my neice calls me her Aunt Choody.

I love it when I find out there was a 10 point curve on one of my final exams, especially when I didn't bomb it to begin with! Woo hoo!

I love it when it suddenly downpours rain, and the sky gets so dark and the clouds hang so low you think it will never shine again, and then as fast as it came, the storm rolls away and the sun shines through and the world looks all clean and shiney and new, and better than it did before the storm. There's a life lesson in that somewhere, I'm sure.

I love it when I drop the lid to my new fat marker at work, and I look and look everywhere. Under my chair? No. Behind my trashcan? Not there either. And just when I'm about to give up, and I'm afraid I'm gonna have to throw the marker away, my co-worker walks by and says "What's this?" and picks up my marker lid. Day saved.

I love it when my dog can tell I've had a bad day, and instead of whining for rubs like he usually does when I walk in the door, he sits beside me on the couch, and lays his chin in my lap, and looks at me with his big brown eyes and sighs.

I love it when my husband texts me random punch lines to inside jokes at random times throughout the day.

I love it when I am thinking about a song I haven't heard in a long time, and then I turn on the radio, and it's playing. "G-L-A-M-O-R-OUS!"


OH! I thought this was pretty neat, so I'm gonna share it with you (as if anyone other than me reads this blog anyway!)

I always wanted to have my own little garden. When we got married, I tried to grow tomatoes. No go. They died. I tried to grow mums. Dead within a week. I planted flowers and peppers and vegetables, and nothing NOTHING would grow. I bought MiracleGro, and fancy heads for my hosepipe, and garden tools from Lowes. Nada.

Last summer, I was visiting my grandparents at their house, and I commented on my grandmother's iris blooms. Now, my grandparents are kinda known for their garden. It's dynamite. Papa would find these beautiful flowers and plant them for Grandma, and she would tend to them and keep them looking as pretty as her. She said that she had so many iris blooms, that she had to thin out the flowerbed, and dug up a ton of iris bulbs. Papa insisted that I took a bag of bulbs home with me and plant them at my house. I tried to refuse, explaining that I would only kill them, but he insisted, and if you knew Dial Holder, you knew you coudln't tell him No to anything! "They're easy to grow!" he said. "They'll be blooming next spring and you won't have to do a thing! I promise!". I took the bag home, but honestly, just so he would feel like he'd won.

That bag sat on my front porch for days before I did anything with them. I did plant a few bulbs in the flowerbed in front of our house, not even clearing out the weeds first. I basically just dropped about 5 iris bulbs and kicked some dirt on them and forgot about them. I wanted to tell him the next time I saw him that I had planted his iris bulbs like he wanted me to. I didn't get that chance. He died, very suddenly, about two weeks later.

Weeks went on, and months went on, and I never did plant the rest of those iris bulbs. It was just too sad.

Easter Sunday, we were pulling out of the driveway on our way to church, and I gasped. I coudln't believe it. In front of my house, in my flowerbed, were 5 beautiful lavender iris blooms, more beautiful than any I've ever seen except for at my Papa's garden. He promised they would grow, and they did. They grew and are probably about 18 inches tall and just as full and lavender as you can imagine.

Now, I'm not trying to say that my Papa is "looking down on me and tending my flower bed full of irises". I know where he is right now, and it's surely not looking down on me. He's enjoying his reward and waiting on the day of judgement to be with all of the saints in Heaven. But what I am saying is that he was right. I did what he said, and they are more beautiful than I could have imagined.

I love it when I look at my flower garden, and can hear my Papa say "They'll be blooming by next spring!" like he was right beside me.

Sonny Coon, Sonny Bear,
Trudy

My Non-resolution Resolution

I have some of the greatest friends on the planet. And fortunately for me, some of them go to church with us here at Boiling Springs church of Christ. We all decided a long time ago that we wanted to join a gym together, because misery loves company, right? Well, unfortunately, we didn't all have the money to do it right away (and by "we" I mean "I"), and to benefit in the deal this particular gym was having, we needed to all pay up front for the year. Thankfully, I was able to save up enough, and with money I got for Christmas, was able to join the gym! I have gone everyday since joining now, which was 12/30/09. I really really really love it. I've never ever worked out really before. I mean, sure, I've played in a backyard football game, or an intramural softball game (if there were no other warm bodies to man the plates), but to have a routine and work at it and stick to it and most of all, ENJOY it, I'm totally new to that. I'm really loving it and hope to stick to it. I love how proud of myself I feel when I walk out of there knowing that I'm doing something really good for me, but I really love how proud my husband is of me, and since that is my second goal in life, I am happy for that.

This is going to be a fabulous new year, I can tell already. We got pulled over on NYE on the way home from a friends' party. We were trying to get home before midnight, and so we left with about 15 minutes to go. We were only about 3 miles from home, when we got blue lighted! Yep, that's right. We got a pulled over. Now let me give you a little background on this... the party we came from was at a church friends' house. The theme was "The Roaring Twenties", so we were all decked out in costume. Dan was dressed like John Dillinger, complete with handgun. So as we are waiting on the cop to come to the window, he's frantically trying to hide the phony gun, and I'm saying "Dan! Dont look suspicious! Just show him it's fake!". Chaos, but he managed to get it successfully under the driver's seat before the officer reached the car. Luckily, he was just looking for drunk drivers, and since we hadn't drunk anything harder than Sprite, we were off the hook. But yes, we spent midnight NYE with the blue lights flashing. So romantic!

I hope you all had a great and safe New Year's! Love you all!!
Please continue to pray for the Grays.

Hey Everyone!!

I'm terrible about keeping up with this blog. I just noticed that it's been June since my last post!

Here's my attempt at catching you up on what's been going on in our lives since then...

JULY

In July, we took a one day vacation to Charleston, SC with some friends from church, Rhea, Rhonda and Monty. We ate awesome seafood, walked the market, and spent some time on Folly Beach. All in all, it was a great little getaway!

This is Monty, and his Sand Legs!

Monty, Rhonda and Rhea at A.W. Shucks

Me and Dan at A.W. Shucks. I really wish I had some of their shrimp right about now!

August

August was by far the busiest month I've probably ever had!

First of all, Dan's cousin, Ashley, had her wedding in Alabama.

I was honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid, and this is a picture of Ashley's bridesmaid's luncheon.

The is Mrs.Ingram (Dan's mom), Mrs. Ingram (haha!), Ashley Davis Watkins and her mom, Ivy


While I was in the gump for some bridal festivities, I met up with some Faulkner friends that I haven't seen in ages! We met at Olive Garden for dinner, and then went to see

The Time Traveler's Wife

at the Rave. It was a really good movie. Bring the Kleenex with you though!

These are just a few of the ones who were there.

Laurie, Taryn, Wendy, Bambi, Brooke, Me, Leigh, and Shanon

August was also the start of school for me. I am in the Respiratory Therapy program at Spartanburg Community College. I'm loving the classes, and being an asthmatic myself, I'm learning so much about how to make life easier on myself too. These are some friends in Lab. We had some free time and a camera, so ya know,..

Me, Deanna, Taylor, Audra, and Ashley

The week after school started, I went back to Alabama, this time with Dan, for the wedding. It was at Lake Martin at Children's Harbor. It was a truly gorgeous wedding and we had a great time. This is the bridesmaids with the bride, on the dock.

August was also one of the saddest months of my life.

See, My mother had been having some heart problems for a while, and was having test after test to determine her course of treatment. At one point, we were waiting for her to have a pacemaker implanted (but thanks to answered prayer, that was deemed not necessary after all). About the same time, my papa had begun having some problems with his health. He was very sick to his stomach and we couldn't figure out why. One Tuesday night, my mother was at Greenville Memorial Hospital, while Papa was at St. Francis Hospital down the road.

I chose to go sit with Mama and see that my dad got some dinner,

and thought I would go to see Papa the next day after classes.

The next morning, I woke up with a wicked sinus infection. I went to the doctor, and then to the pharmacy to get my antibiotics filled. While waiting in line, I called Daddy to check on Papa. As they were getting Papa ready for an exray, they were moving him to a

stretcher from his bed for transport, and they believed he dislodged a blood clot.

He was rushed to ICU, and we were waiting on word.

When I got home, I recieved a call from my mom that he did not make it to ICU, but passed away on the way there, most likely from a pulmonary embolism.

He was 79 years old.

Grandma and Papa at a grandchild's wedding

September
With the month of August behind me, I just dove headfirst into my studies and work. It's so much easier for me to deal with the death of a loved one if I'm too busy to come up for air, let alone think about how he's gone.

October

Dan and I took a break, and went back to Charleston for a few days. We relaxed, and ate great seafood again, and enjoyed the perfect weather. We went on a Graveyard Ghost Tour, which was fantastic!! I truly recommend it. This is the guy we met while waiting for the tour to start. He was nicer than he looks. haha

When we got home, we found out that my mother doesn't ventricular tachycardia like they thought, but she has atrial fibrillation, which isn't super, but it's got a better treatment plan and quality of life associated with it than VT.

As far as November goes, I'm just back to studying nonstop, working nonstop, and wishing I could sleep! We've had some health issues with Moose, but it looks like he'll be okay.

We are going to Montgomery as usual for Thanksgiving next week.

Then my finals are the next week.

Then it's time for a break!!

I'll try not to wait so long to post again.

I hope you all have a

GREAT THANKSGIVING!!