Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's 67th birthday. In honor of this occasion, I am posting old (and I mean OLD) pictures of him for my readers to appreciate and for a few of my readers to remember those days.



I think he was about 2 years old in this picture. I scanned this one a long time ago and don't have the actual photo in front of me right now.



According to the writing on the back of this photo, Dad was 3 years and 5 days old when it was taken.



The back of this photo says he was 7 years and 3 months old, probably in 2nd grade or thereabouts.



This was Dad's school picture for his junior year of high school.



The back of this one simply says "Bowlegs 1960". So, it was either his junior or senior year of high school. Since there are no leaves on the tree behind him, I'm assuming the photo was taken in the fall of his senior year.



I believe this photo was taken during my dad's senior year and his brother Marion's 6th grade year.



Although I wasn't around yet (or even thought of yet), this photo is from a very important day for me. It was my parents' wedding day. In this photo, Dad is signing his life away...I mean signing the marriage license.



In this last photo, I was a few months old, and Art was almost 3 years old. This photo is very typical of my dad in my childhood years. He was always outside spending time with me and Art.

CONTEST

On my other blog (365 Desserts), I have a contest going on through the end of this week. Be sure to stop by there to check it out.

School Pictures Recap

In my last post, I asked for help in choosing which of Sam's pictures to purchase this year. Thanks for those of you who voted. The one I chose was the one in the middle on the bottom row. Here is the proof again, to jog your memory:



Well, anyway, I didn't order any pictures at all. Something unexpected came up that I had to shill out money for, and I couldn't also buy pictures. That's okay, though, because Sam really didn't like them and didn't want me to buy them. They will be taking pictures again in the spring, and hopefully he'll like them better and nothing else will come up that needs money.

Help Me Decide

It's school picture time. Well, the pictures have been taken, and now it's time to decide which one(s) to buy. Being the biased mom that I am, I think my child is totally photogenic, and I'm having a tough time deciding which image to go with. That's where you come in. Please, please, please leave a comment letting me know which one you like best.

I scanned the proof sheet to put on here. The top 5 pictures are Sam; the pictures at the bottom are advertisements. Sorry the pictures are so tiny. When I tried to enlarge it, it became blurry.



I'll come back in a few days and let you know which one I picked.

My Hospital Experience

My last couple posts were written from the hospital. I've been out for over a week now, but I'm just now feeling up to getting back on here with an update. It was quite an ordeal! For about a week after I came home, my arms still looked like I had been in some kind of physical combat.

The whole experience began on the evening of Friday, August 27. I started having chest pains at work and left early to go home and rest. As long as I was lying still, I felt better, so I got up Saturday morning thinking it had all passed. I went to work, but didn't last long. The pain was too severe.

I went to the emergency room and was very quickly attended to by three nurses, all poking and prodding me at once. I was hooked up to an ECG, had an IV started, and all kinds of stuff. I warned the nurse starting the IV that I have very bad veins, and everyone in the hospital soon learned how true that was. There were several unsuccessful attempts at starting IV's. One nurse managed to get one started, but it was too small to be used for the cat scan. Finally, they got a larger one started, and I was taken for the cat scan. Unfortunately, when the dye was injected, the IV blew, and my arm was filled with the fluid.



Anyway, I was admitted to the hospital and ended up staying FOUR days and had several tests. I was poked with a needle more times than I can count, and I came home with bruises all over. Here is a picture of me in the hospital, hooked up to an IV, a heart monitor, oxygen, etc.



On that Monday, they did an echocardiogram. Here is what it looked like:



I was supposed to have a heart cath done on Tuesday, but a lady was brought in with a massive heart attack. She, obviously, took priority, and my cath was bumped to Wednesday. For the cath, they had to start yet another IV on my already terribly bruised arm.



The outcome of all the tests was that my heart is in pretty good shape, considering the defects I was born with. I have no blood clots and no blockage at all. I do have some regurgitation, due to the faulty tricuspid valve; but that is to be expected. The doctors adjusted my daily meds somewhat and sent me on my way that Wednesday evening. I was elated about going home. I have been very weak, though, and the site where they inserted the cath hurt for quite a bit longer than I expected.

Here are some flowers I received while I was in the hospital: