Happy New Year!

Or, as Joshilyn called it, "Happy O CRAP I JUST WROTE 2008 ON MY CHECK Day"!

Well, again, life has changed my plans for me, and the blogging took a little hiatus (but if you would sign up to facebook or Twitter, you could have been RIGHT THERE with me through all the drama!) Thankfully, the drama wasn't huge or life-altering, but it was plan-changing, for sure.

Left to go to Louisiana on Saturday the 27th. Fairly uneventful, but Troy's stomach was a little unsettled. Truthfully, if both of us have gone 24 hours with a happy stomach in the last 5 years, I don't remember it, so neither of us thought much of it. Sunday we went to worship with the family, then lunch. Troy, even trying to not over-indulge, and stay away from sweets, still didn't feel well.

The cousins had a grand time playing together and took on a soccer game, headed up by my brother Kevin. My kids and I went to see my grandmother early Sunday evening and heard many more stories about her youth. The older I get, the more I love to hear those stories. My grandmother's hearing is all but totally gone, so conversations are very difficult, but her mind is AMAZING and she loves to tell the stories of 'those days'. I love to hear them, and the kids tolerated them. Riley, ever curious (told me in the car today: "Did you know that 1 in 2,000 babies are born with teeth and that the preying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head?" That is my life with him 24/7) returned to my parent's house and started major researching our family tree. "Who was Mamaw's mom? Did she have sisters? Who else am I related to?" Thank heaven for the internet! I've already done much of that research stuff at myheritage.com. Very interesting!

Monday we were lazy. I did a little workout, the kids did some more soccer and football and such. I think it was late Sunday night I got an email from my Abilene Families editor that if I had something to turn in, she could still take it (it was about 10 days post-deadline, so I figured I would just be left out this month). I went and did some writing at the local public library. All this while, Troy was still feeling not-too-great, leaning toward actually sick. He stuck to a baked potato for dinner Monday night, but continued feeling worse and worse. I did a little packing up -- we were supposed to come back to Abilene Tuesday morning, after all.

Tuesday morning we got up... to keep a long story from getting eternal, Troy said there was NO WAY he could travel 8 hours in the pain he was in. His stomach had graduated from "rolling" to just constant, excruciating pain. We ended up going to a minor emergency clinic where they were VERY nice to us and very kind and thorough, but didn't have the equipment to be sure what was wrong with Troy. They gave him a shot to manage the pain, then sent us to the ER. Oy. The ER.

They actually got us back in a room in less than an hour, so I thought they may have been okay. Listen up, folks, I am bordering on being an expert in emergent medical care. Those of you that think we have it bad in Abilene? Try getting sick in N. Louisiana. Yeeshk. I (guess) they know what they are doing, but here in Abilene -- I am a person caring for a sick person that I am with. The sick person I am with is treated with kindness and care, and I am respected and taken care of, as well. This time? I didn't exist unless I tripped someone going down the hall to say, "Excuse me, what exactly am I waiting FOR???" Troy wasn't a person to treat, he was a pain scale and a respiration rate to 'fix'. No one would acknowledge either of us upon entering the room, only tend to the numbers. I do take that back -- the dr. was okay, and one elderly guy, no idea what his 'ranking' was in the pecking order around there. He did Troy's EKG. I don't think Troy or I have ever had an EKG, and it was all I could do to not take a picture with my phone to post on the World Wide Web. I told my parents that it looked like they were trying to jump-start Troy. But the shots Troy had gotten were taking effect and he was barely conscious (that's why they were concerned with his respiration rate-- dropped a little low for a while) but that one guy told Troy everything he was doing and ended it with a 'Mistuh Troy' in a southern drawl. I doubt Troy remembers him at all, but of the 8-10 people we saw that day, he's basically the only one who acted as if either of us was a people.

Troy got sent home with the drugs starting to wear off, a Rx for some anti-cramping elixir, and a diagnosis of 'acute viral gastroenteritis and dehydration'. They gave him a bag of fluids in the ER, and told him to push the fluids that night, no solid foods, yada, yada. So instead of traveling back to Abilene we made it as far as the ER and back to my parent's house and my precious parents continued to sleep not in their own bed so Troy could be close to a bathroom if needed. We stayed one extra day for Troy to get caught up on fluids and calories. We came home today, 2 days late, but with Troy much better than 2 days ago. So very thankful.

Oddly enough (or not) I wrote the following on Monday for my looming deadline for the Valentine's Day issue of Abilene Families:

"Love is not a polished, glimmery state. Love is messy, inconvenient, and frustrating. Love is giving up the last ounce of energy, sleep, time, or chocolate for the well-being of another. Love isn’t found in romantic restaurants or destinations, but in hospital waiting rooms, the lobby of funeral homes, and kneeling in prayer next to race-car or princess beds in the middle of the night. Love is less about flowers and cartoon hearts, and everything about the value of another soul on this planet. I guess that’s a little harder to put on the side of a coffee mug."

I counted it my honor and privilege to be the caregiver of my hubs that day, and I am SO thankful we got sent home without surgery or major issues looming -- which were tossed out as possibilities. I'm thankful to be back at my house safely. I'm thankful for the family care we all received when we weren't at home.

So, plans got changed, all is well, and Troy and I are watching our Netflix 'Dreamgirls' to kick off 2009. And perhaps tomorrow I will think of where I would like to be by 2010. For right now, I am precisely where I want to be!

Happy New Year!