a trip to the ER

I haven't blogged for a while, but this time I actually have a good excuse! 2 nights ago I had to have my husband call 911 in the middle of the night and I took a trip to the ER. And you know what...it was NOTHING like on TV! No one yelled STAT or ordered a Chem 7 or gave me 10 cc of Morphine. They didn't even turn on the siren on the way to the hospital. It was the slow boat to China I tell ya!

What happened was - I woke up feeling really sick to my stomach and my hands and feet felt tingly, like they were asleep. I went to bathroom and threw up (gross I know!), I got really hot and sweaty, then my hands cramped up like claws and I couldn't straighten them out.

It finally went away and I tried to lay down again. In about 10 minutes it started all over again. This time, my feet also cramped up, straight out and I couldn't unpoint my toes. It hurt so bad!!! I woke up my husband at this point and said, "I'm having some kind of attack! Call 911! My hands are like claws!" Sounds really funny now - not so much at the time! I had no idea what was going on...was I having a stroke or what? (I always imagine the worst).

The firemen come and ask me all kinds of questions, when of course, I can barely talk. Then, the ambulance finally comes, more questions. They finally get me in the bus, more questions on the way there. They did give me some oxygen on the way there which helped a little. In the ER, the nurse comes in and guess what - more questions!!! The same ones I already answered!

No treatment yet...only the oxygen. The Dr. finally shows up and you guessed it! More questions! I got a little mad at this point and I am normally a nice and very patient person. I had to apologize later, I felt bad about it. They did start treatment soon after that and I began to feel better pretty quickly. It turned out my potassium had gotten dangerously low due to some medication I take. Crazy, huh? I hope I never have to go through something like that again. Not a fun way to spend the night. I didn't even get any sleep...there's machines beeping and people coming in and out, the light was on full blast. I'd much rather watch ER on TV than visit, it's definitely way more fun!

IF - sour

Dear Illustration Friday - I've missed you! It's been 2 weeks since my last entry in your illustration challenges. I hope you haven't forgotten me...I was busy with work and then on vacation, you know how it is sometimes. This is what I did for this week with the word "sour". I hope you like it and I promise to try to keep in touch with you as much as I can this summer, because you are so much fun and I always enjoy our time together. Love, Nina

indiana

One of the most fun things about going back home to Indiana is doing small town things and seeing weird signs along the roads like this one. I would have loved to spend a day driving around looking for unusual signs to take pictures of, but I couldn't get much support for this idea from the rest of my family. They did indulge me this one...not only is Jesus coming, but it's SOON! You just don't see things like this in Seattle.

There are also some things that I don't really like about visiting Indiana. I barely managed to survive the GINORMOUS mosquitos which attacked me everytime I went outside. These things were fierce and not in a "That's so fierce Project Runway" kinda way. My bites were the size of quarters! I also had a close encounter with a case of Poison Oak. I offered to wash the windows on the outside of my Mom's house for her. She was lamenting the fact that the window washers had quoted her 2.50 a pane, so I said, "Hey, I'll do it!" It's a one story house, so no ladders were involved. I got about 2/3 of the way around the house and went in to check the time, knowing I had to pick my sister up from work at 5:00. Once inside, seeing it was 4:40, I told my Mom that I better clean up and get going and my Mom replies..."You'd better take a shower, there's Posion Oak over on the side of the house where you just were!" SAY, WHAT?!!!! I was in that shower, scrubbing like crazy, faster than you could say "poison oak". And I even managed to pick her up on time.

off to the homeland

No time for Illustration Friday this week...darn, it was a good one, too! The topic is "hoard". I can think of lots of fun things to do with that, but oh well, I'm off to the "Crossroads of America"! (What does that mean exactly?!!!) It's kinda like "Hoosiers", everyone always asked me what that means, when they hear I'm originally from Indiana. I don't think anyone even really knows what it means, something about some ole' geezer yelling out "Who's there?" and it sounded like "Hoosier". Must have made sense to somebody at that time, but it sure sounds pretty lame today.

Indiana is a lot different than Seattle in many ways, but we always have fun doing small town things and hanging with family. We like to do things like Putt-Putt golf, bowling (neon glow night is the best, when they do karaoke), go-kart racing, drive-in movies and of course going out for ice cream! There are some awesome ice cream places there!

so, later, gators...I'll see you in July!

IF - punchline

A quickie for Illustration Friday this week. The best punchline is one that spreads across a kids mouth, don't ya think?

something to blog about

Whooo-hooo! She did it! My daughter, Nikki, graduated from 8th grade last night! I don't remember it being a big deal when I left junior high (as it was called back then), but it's a big deal at her school and of course, a big deal to her. As you can see by the top photo, she got the dress and the heels and looked way beyond her 14 years. Oh boy...we are in for a bumpy ride these next 4 years of High school, my friends. Hearts will be breaking all over this city, I'm afraid.

The 2nd photo is Nikki and her friend Iris, giving their presentation and introducing the slideshow that they helped put together. She spoke loud and clear and wasn't nervous, so that was a good thing. It takes guts to get up in front of people and I was really proud of her.

It was so funny to see the girls in their fun dresses and high heels and the boys in their ill fitting suits or plain old jeans. I can just hear them "I'm not getting dressed up for this!"

So here she goes, off to more adventures in High school. A new place, new classes, new friends and some old friends. We say good-bye to Salmon Bay school today with a bit of sadness (she's been there since Kindergarten) but we look forward to a bright future, knowing that it gave her a good start.

IF - forgotten

"After Susie and Jenny became BFF's, poor Janey was just forgotten."

For Illustration Friday this week. The theme is, of course - forgotten. I made these paper dolls by hand (the fun polka dot paper is from A Muse), then I scanned them into the computer, did a drop shadow effect and put them all together on some old wallpaper. Added a few lines to suggest a room and the fury scribble over poor Janey's head. It should have been quick and easy, but that drop shadow effect gave me some trouble! I really liked the look, so I stuck with it...it just needed lots of "fixing", which was time consuming. One day I hope to be good at these illustration things and they won't take me so (bleep) long!