Nana Judi

Aidan has such an imagination November 3, 2006

Those of you who read Jenni’s blog already know about Aidan’s imaginary wife.  She hasn’t shared the story he told me, so I’ll have to share with you myself.

A couple of weeks ago I went up for the week-end, and since they have the new van there is now room for me to ride with them.  Sunday morning on the way to church, after driving just a short time, Chris pulled over, got out and opened and shut the  slider door on the side of the van.  That reminded me of a little boy in Tacoma who had fallen out the door of his family’s van on the freeway and was killed.  I asked Jenni if she had heard about that and she said she hadn’t.  We discussed this for a while, and when we had finished, Aidan, who didn’t interupt us at all, said, very matter-of-factly, “My wife was riding in a car, and the door opened and she fell out, and another car was coming, and it hit her, and hurt her leg.  So the doctor came and they took her in the Ambliance to the Hostible and checked out her leg.”

Jenni and I were just about dying by this time, but I managed to keep a straight face and asked him, “Was her leg broken?”

“Yeah”, he replied, very   seriously.

“Did they take an X-Ray?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know Nana takes X-rays?  When Nathan broke his arm Nana took the X-ray.”

“Oh, did they put a bandage on it?”

“Yes, they put a kind of hard bandage, called a cast, on it.”

“Oh, did you know my wife takes X-a-rays?”

“She’s very versatile, isn’t she?”

“Yes, and she’s very brave.”

I don’t know how we managed to keep from totaly howling with laughter, but somehow we did.  I’ve told this story many times in the last couple of weeks, and several people have encouraged me to write it down, so here it is!  Today I was telling it, again, to my lady while I was doing her mammogram, and she said, “It’s great that you have grandkids to tell stories about to us ladies to distract us from what you’re doing to us!”

After church we were waiting for Jenni to come out of Starbucks when he piped up with, “I want to go to Howard’s”.  Howard is my mother’s husband, but Aidan never calls him Howard, he always calls him Grandpa, so we were not sure if that was who he meant.  Chris asked him, “Who is Howard?”

“You know, he lives in his house with his wife.”

“Who is his wife?”

“Great-Grandma…not Great-Grandma Esther…”

“Great-Grandma Webster?”

“Yeah.”

I had to tell that one to Howard, who was quite pleased, since he has a very high opinion of Aidan!

Well, Jenni and I have several things in common, one of which is we  like to get on the computer late at night.  We both have jobs that keep us busy during the day! 🙂  I guess I should get to bed, even though I don’t have to go to work in the morning!  I told Jen “I’m going to turn off the alarm and not get up ’til I wake up!”  She said, “Me too, I just hope it’s not at 5:00 AM!”  Lucky for me I don’t have anyone to wake me up before I’m ready!

It had to get worse…. March 5, 2006

Before it got better!   A little over a week ago Andrew called me to tell me the woes of parenting…with sick kids!  They were all, including Andrea, sick again!  He had taken Oliver to the hospital with a bad rash one friday night, where they, assuming it was some type of allergy, gave him an antihistamine.  I don’t think it helped, then Andrea was sick over the week-end, and Dan’s RSV seemed to return.  On Monday Andrea took Oliver to the doctor because he had bruises over much of his body…how scary!  A blood test revealed that he had half of the low-normal amount of platelets.  Platelets are the sticky cells in your blood that make it clot, forming a scab when you cut yourself.  With too few platlets the blood has trouble clotting and a lot too few platelets can result in severe bleeding, or, if there is a head injury, intercranial bleeding.  This is a condition called ITP (Immune (or Interstitial) Thrombocytopenic Purpura).  It is a result of the immune system thinking that the platelets are a foreign body, so it begins to destroy them!  Not a good thing!!  It often happens a few days, or weeks, after a viral infection, in which the immune system has been trying to kill off the virus, and then continues to kill off platelets!  There is no treatment unless the platelet count goes too low, and then the only treatment is a transfusion of platelets.  Needless to say, we don’t want that to happen!  I talked to a lady at church today who has a neice who had ITP, which lasted for several years, and required several transfusions.  She ended up having to have her spleen removed, which stopped the problem, but then ends up with a compromised immune system.  Oliver has to have a blood test every week until his count goes up to normal.  Not the favorite thing for a four year old!  I talked to Andrea yesterday, and the blood test this week was normal!  Praise the Lord!  There were a lot of people praying for him, and my other grandbabies!  Oliver still has to have another blood test this week, to make sure the count stays at normal, and then he may have to have more, just not so often, at some point they will just watch for bruising and/or the rash.  Dan is also much better!

I also talked to Jenni yesterday, and her boys are much better as well, and she is feeling more and more like the new baby girl could come at any time!  She’s due in 5 days!!  So I am getting my suitcase packed so that I can leave at a moments notice!  I will take it to work with me for the duration so that I can leave right from work if she goes into labor while I am at work.  I’ll also carry my cell phone with me at all times so I can run as soon as they call that it’s time!  I did that  before Eamon was born, and I was in the middle of doing a mammogram when my phone rang.  The lady knew I was waiting for a call, so she was excited for me to stop doing her mammo and answer my phone.  However, 18 month old Aidan had got hold of his mommie’s cell phone and hit “Redial”…false alarm!  I got a couple of those at work, but when the (more or less) real call came I was getting my nails done.  She wasn’t in labor yet but thought I should come up now so she wouldn’t have to call and make me drive up in the middle of the night!  Very thoughtful daughter, right?  Unfortuanately, she didn’t go into labor that night, so I had to drive back to Tacoma the next morning to go to work, and then drive back up to Burlington after work, and she still wasn’t in labor!  She finally had Eamon very early on Sunday morning!  My supervisors at work don’t especially like the idea of my taking off work when the baby is born, but they accept the fact that moms need to be with their daughters when they give birth, if at all possible!  Come to think of it, I like to be with my daughters-in-law when they give birth, as well!  That hasn’t always worked out, but I was with Andrea when Oliver was born, and with Susie when Nathan and Jacob were born, so I have only missed the births of Aariah, Lily and Dan, and I got to see Aariah before he left the hospital, Lily when she was about two weeks old, and Dan before he was three months old, so that’s not too bad!  I told my supervisor that I probably wouldn’t have any more grandbabies for about two years…maybe!  Well, I should eat lunch.  If I get too hungry I eat too much!  Oh, update on my diet…I’ve lost 22 lbs, and 20”!

Sick Kids! February 19, 2006

Wow, what a couple of weeks just past! Two weeks ago Andrew called and baby Dan, not even four months old. had spent most of the day in the hospital with RSV (Respritory Syncytial Virus). Then I called a few days later to see how he was doing, and Andrea said, “Well, he’s home again” …I didn’t even know he was back in! I think he spent the night, I understand because his blood tests showed some sort of bacteria. He was doing well, so the drs thought the sample must have been tainted, so they took another sample and sent him home. This one also showed bacteria, so they took another test, thinking that one must be tainted too! This one came back clear. Amazing that three seperate blood tests could be tainted! I have some concerns about that lab! I guess the whole family had been sick, but Dan was sickest! I think they are all doing better now. Valentines day I got back to my cell phone after work, and had a voice mail. I heard Andy’s voice saying “Say I love you” and a sweet little girl voice making noises that if you listened closely enough and loved Lily enough, you could imagine were “I love you” Andrew tried to get her to say something else, and she said “bye”! Then Oliver came on the line and said ” Happy Valentines Day, I love you Nana” in a rather sad voice. I took that to mean that he misses his nana as much as she misses him! What a sweet boy he can be! When I was there at Christmas time he came to me several times and said “I love you, Nana” without even any prompting…of course nanas just love that kind of thing!

Now, I know my mom is not a kid, but she has been sick, and a couple of weeks ago she had to come in to my department so I could x-ray her back and wrist! She had fallen in the bathtub! She didn’t break anything, but she has to come in again for a CT scan of her low back, as she is still having a lot of pain at times. I don’t do CT, but I will do her Mammogram at the same time, she has been putting that off for over a year, and I haven’t pushed her because she goes to the Dr. so much, and though she is now doing enough better that her cardiologist is taking her off at least one of her meds, (she only has to take it if she has trouble breathing), she still has a lot of trouble getting up in the morning! Or should I say afternoon?

Jenni has been having trials and tribulations with sick kids as well. Monday when I talked to her she had taken the boys to the dr, and she thought they had croup. Friday Aidan was so much worse she took him back and they decided that he probably has Whooping Cough! Eamon probably has it as well, just not quite as bad as his big brother. Chris has been coughing as welll, so they put them all on antibiotics, Jenni so she wouldn’t get it so near for time for the baby to be born. The baby also gave them cause for concern this week. The midwife thought she was breech, so Jen went for another ultrasound, and praise The Lord, she was head down! Jenni sooo doesn’t want to have to go to the the hospital for the birth, and twice during this pregnancy she has had to face the possibility that she might not be able to have a home birth! So keep Jen and the baby in your prayers, that the rest of the pregnancy and the birth will be just as planned!  Also that every one will be well before time for the baby to arrive!!
Oh, my goodness, will you look at the time. I start writing and get carried away! Tomorrow is Sunday, so I should get to bed. I like to get up without the alarm on Sundays, it just seems so much more relaxed. If I don’t get to bed though, I won’t be able to wake up in time!

Love you all!

I’m a week behind times! January 28, 2006

I went to a ladies brunch at church today and Kay Alford (whose son Johnnie knows every one in town, and knows every thing about them) asked me how my brother Sam’s face was. I didn’t know anything about Sam’s face. He had cancer surgery on his nose in June, and they removed (and rebuilt) half of his nose. Now he had a new cancer removed from his face, in the crease beside his nose above his mustache. Then she asked my how my nephew was doing, and I didn’t know anything about that either! Sandee’s youngest son, Trent, had crashed on a 4-wheeler last week-end, and had spent most of the week at Harborview! He had fractured three vertrebrae, the 5th, 6th, and 7th cervical vertebrae. For you non-medical people, those are the bottom vertebrae in the neck, and as a result of the injury his right arm is paralyzed! The hope is that the paralysis is the result of swelling in that area, and he does seem to be getting more use in his hand and fingers. He came home on Thursday, to his mom and dad’s house, but is wearing a stiff cervical collar which he has to wear 24-7 for the next 10 to 12 weeks. apparantly the fractures are not the kind that push bone into the foramina through which the nerves pass, but the MRI showed bulging at those levels, they were not sure whether it was a bulging disc, or just swelling. We’re all voting for swelling which will go down in time!

I assured Kay that I loved my family, and was interested in what was going on, but I was in Burlington helping Jenni and Chris pack for their move last week-end, (they’re moving this week-end) and when I get home from work, between 7 and 7:30, I just eat dinner and veg for the rest of the evening! As soon as I got home from the brunch I went to see my family and found out the details.

Another lady asked me if my nephew Josh was in trouble with the law! She had been at the courthouse and saw the name Josh Harvey on the docket for breaking and entering, or some similar charge. Luckily, that was some other Josh Harvey!!

So, I hope I am caught up now. I certainly hope no other catastrophes have attacked my family that I don’t know about!

I hope when the Lord brings the Webster family to your mind you will send up a prayer, that they will not have to carve away any more of Sam’s face, and that Trent will rapidly regain use of his arm. Trent also has a gash on his head, I understand from his helmet, which thank God he was wearing. Otherwise we would be having a funeral. He landed on his head and shoulder on a large rock, and the rock won!

Well, I just noticed that the time is 11:50 PM, so guess I should post this and get to bed. Tomorrow is church, hopefully I won’t find out any thing more disturbing! 🙂

Here I am again! January 17, 2006

I had such a good idea for a post, Sunday I walked in to church, and there was a good friend of Tamara’s from high school, Mandy used-to-be-Bristol, with her husband and two adorable girl, visiting from New Jersey, also Mandy’s mom, Debbie.  I sat in front of them and looked over front and center and there were Al Albert and his good friends who used to come to church here, the Phillips, visiting from Arkansas!  Then I looked over my shoulder, and lo and behold, there were Nicole and Hans Stol and their three girlies, visiting from Michigan!!  Well, I thought to my self, I can just take pictures of them all and put them on my blog!  Good idea, self, I thought.  Well, the Phillipses left before I got a chance even to say Hi, but Nicole and Mandy and families were still visiting, so…I rounded up Hans, Nicole, Elizabeth, Morgan and Haley to take a picture…only to find my camera had dead batteries…Shoot!!!  The Stols will be here for a couple more weeks, so I can still get pics of them, but Mandy and family were leaving in a couple days.  Opportunities lost!  Oh, well.  It was great to see and visit with them and hold my newest “granddaughter” …speaking of which, you probably all know…Jenni and Chris are having a GIRL!!!  I am soooooo excited!   Jen called me at work today, after her Ultrasound, and by the time I got off the phone several people in the department already knew!  And it didn’t take me long to inform nearly every one else within  hearing distance!  On the way home from work I called several others, until my cell phone (or as Aidan says “selfnone”) batteries went dead…what is up with batteries any way!!

Well,I have to go to work in the morning, so guess I’d better hit the sack.

Jen and Nicole and kids January 7, 2006

Jen and Nicole and kidsOriginally uploaded by Nana Judi.

Jen’s best friend (before Chris and besides Tamara) Nicole and her girls (before Haley – actually, Haley is behind Eamon and Morgan 🙂 and Jen’s new baby is behind Aidan and Elizabeth! 🙂 Nicole got another girl, will Jenni get another boy? Nicole was visiting from Michigan and came to visit Jen. I came too, Debbie was supposed to come too, but chickened out at the last minute. We had a good time though, even without the other Mom!

Here I am World January 7, 2006

I am a new blogger, created by my daughter Jenni and her husband Chris! They tell me I can write anything I want in here! Well, watch out world, Here I come!!