Laundry Room

Here are some photos of our Firth laundry room. It's kind of a long story why I'm posting them, and I don't have time at the moment.

Home Again

We are finally home from the hospital. We were discharged from PCMC on Monday, and she had a cast change at Shriner's on Wednesday. They had to change the casts because when they did the surgery, they split them open at the sides to allow for swelling. These split casts were not strong enough to last long term. Since we would have driven home just to turn around and come back the next day, instead we stayed in a hotel with my mother-in-law. She came down and stayed in the hotel the whole time I was down there, to help. Mom also did a great deal to help. She watched Tal, and she supervised the workers who came to my house to repair the windows and fireplace. Both of their efforts made the whole thing a lot easier.

Complications

Petra's surgery went very well, and in fact, the Dr.'s felt that she was doing so well after the intubation that they decided not to send her to the ICU, which they had initially planned. She slept most of the day, and Dusty left to go sleep at the hotel. Things were going fine, other than the fact that she was very hungry, but threw up up twice.

It started getting late, and we'd had to get up at 5 so I told Petra that she could keep watching TV, but I was going to sleep. I got into my PJ's and took out my contacts. I waited until the last minute to do that because I can only see about 6 inches in front of my face without them and my glasses are broken. Anyway, I tried to lie down, but she kept getting me up to do little tiny things. Finally, she admitted that she was getting tired, so I turned off the TV. That made her really upset, and so she started to cry. Well, I couldn't see that anything was wrong because I couldn't see her, but her blood oxygen level went down to 15% (it's supposed to be in the high 90's or even 100%). Her alarm went off and the nurse came in. It took me a moment to realize that something was really wrong. The nurse said that she was ashen and she wasn't responding, so the nurse called a code blue (which means that she stopped breathing.) In about 10 seconds there were about 20 people, doctors and nurses, in the room trying to help. She coughed and started breathing again, but she was very frightened. They took a portable chest x-ray and turned off the narcotics that she was receiving through an epidural. Narcotics can make kids not breathe (suppress their respiratory drive.) I called Dusty and he came back to the hospital. I think that she had a bunch of junk in her throat that she didn't want to cough up because her throat hurt and when she got upset she choked on it.

The doctors have decided that it was because she was receiving more narcotics than she needed. Whichever way, it hasn't happened again, but the doctor said that if it does, they will take her to the ICU and figure it out. It was a very scary night. She's doing fine today, but without the narcotics, pain may be an issue. Somehow, I slept okay, but Dusty sure didn't.

8 Things Tag

8 THINGS

TV shows I watch
1.Old episodes of ER (I couldn't even tell you who the characters are on it now)
2. House
3. Without a Trace
4. Law and Order: SVU
5. Project Runway
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. Cake challenge (I'm not really sure what the actual name of that show is...)
8. Jon and Kate plus 8

Things that happened yesterday
1. Got Petra off to school
2. Finished a cross stitch alphabet that I've been putting into my design program
3. Went grocery shopping
4. Did the recycling
5. Got a free pizza for dinner
6. Had Family Home Evening
7. Bathed Tal
8. Worked on my Advent Calender that I'm making

8 Favorite Places to Eat
1. Olive Garden
2. Lazy D's (my friend's restaurant in Shelley)
3. Jack in the Box
4. TGI Fridays
5. Shari's
6. IHOP
7. Home
8. Happy's Chinese Restaurant

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To
1. Moving!!!!!
2. Petra's surgery (in a sort of dreading it/looking forward to it being over kind of way)
3. Going to the temple to have our family sealed
4. Thanksgiving
5. Christmas
6. Decorating my new house
7. Dusty's next day off (I don't know when that might be, but I'm looking forward to it!)
8. Being in another play

8 Things on my Wish List
1. Decent pots and pans
2. Rock Band
3. A new house
4. A new kitchen for the new house
5. This to be Petra's last surgery and last time in casts
6. Talia to be magically potty trained without any work by me : ) (or accidents)
7. A new bed
8. PC Stitch Pro

Terrifying

I found this news article last night by chance. How completely horrifying. I just can't imagine a world where a man would bludgeon his wife and stepson to death with a hammer because she went to church. It makes me sick. You know, I watch crime dramas, and they don't really bother me because they seem so far from reality. Sometimes I wonder how writers can come up with all of that stuff--even to think of something so horrible! But maybe I'm wrong. Apparently. That stuff almost seems tame to some of the stuff you see in the news today. Does reading about it help? Does being aware of it make a difference? Or, are we simply becoming numb? The last days. Are these days really the last? I'm afraid. Very very afraid. This is probably nothing compared to what is to come. But really, how can it get much worse? I don't want to think about it.

Man convicted of killing Mormon wife, stepson over church
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 11/04/2008 03:32:49 PM MST

WOBURN, Mass. - A man was convicted of first-degree murder Tuesday for killing his wife and 11-year-old stepson out of anger over the time she spent with members of her church. The jury found Jeremias Bins guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2006 slayings. Superior Court Judge John Lu sentenced Bins to two consecutive life terms in prison. Prosecutors said a bloodied Bins took a cab to the Framingham police station in May 2006, walked in and said he had just bludgeoned his wife and stepson with a hammer. He handed the couple's 5-month-old son, Phillipe, to officers and said, "I'm sorry."

Carla Souza, 37, and her elder son Caique (KYE'-ee-kay) had been found an hour earlier by police who responded to her 911 call. Souza was an active member of the Framingham ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. About two hours before the killings, Bins called ward members and told them he did not want "you missionaries" at his home any more.

Some church members told police they knew Bins did not support his wife's involvement but they were stunned by the killings. The couple had met through the church when Bins, a native of Brazil, started taking English classes there. Souza, also from Brazil, helped teach the classes. Bins occasionally attended church services with his wife but he did not become a member.

SOLD

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!! I can barely believe it! We got them to come up about $7000 from their first offer. All we need to do now is negotiate a price on the new house. I am ready to move right now. I am really excited because we are going to include money in the purchase price to build a dinning room onto the kitchen. With that, we will be able to turn the "2nd family room" into a master suite and it will be a 6 bedroom house. A dream come true! I can't quite imagine living in a house where half of the kids don't have to share the same room and the other half have to sleep out in the open. I want EVERYONE to come to our house for Christmas. We can have a big party in our building.