dinner conversation

David had a pretty good schedule at the beginning of this month. The bad thing about a good schedule, I am finding, is that you always end up paying for it. Since he had his four days off in the first two weeks of May that means that he has no days off for the rest of the month...it also means that he is working Memorial Day weekend. David's job has given me a whole new view of holidays. They are beginning to mean "days when people drink alcohol and do stupid things and either end up in the hospital or putting other people in the hospital". It does make for interesting dinner conversation. David was on call on Friday which means that out of Friday and Saturday we got to see him for about three hours. At dinner, we heard about the man who took a nasty fall and broke some facial bones and has been leaking fluid from his brain out of...somewhere (his nose I think). Then there was the man who got shot and David spent two hours up to his elbows inside the man's belly, squeezing his aorta, while two other surgeons searched for the source(s) of all the bleeding. I asked "How did you know it was his aorta, how did you find it?" He told me how to find it, although I hope I never have to do it. I don't remember what we had for dinner but I was glad it wasn't spagetti. (I guess there are some good things about Anne being allergic to tomato sauce.)I had been considering telling him about some of my day, but it all seemed so trivial after that. None of what I do is anywhere near as intimidating as what happens to him on a regular basis.
Today is Sunday and David is on call again which means that out of today and tomorrow we will see him for an hour or two tomorrow. He managed a 60 second phone call from the hospital at 10:00 tonight - I guess he had a few second lull while a woman who came in as a trauma patient was in the CT scanner. I was baking a chocolate cake and mixing up pretzel jello for the neighborhood picnic tomorrow. So, David is spending the weekend putting in central lines, IV's and chest tubes and I am changing diapers, giving baths, saving kids when Anne poops in the bathtub again, scrubbing, cooking, folding, making funny face sandwhiches, feeding a baby, breaking up fights, figuring out what in the world I can feed Anne that is wheat, dairy, rice, tomato, chocolate and citrus free and admiring craft papers.
I like my job. The kids and I have a pretty good time together most days. Any time David has a day off we call it vacation and it is the best time of the month. I am looking forward to tomorrow and hearing more of his stories at supper. When my Mom was here last month I got to go down to the hospital one of the nights he was on call and meet him for an hour. David went up to put an IV in someone and I got to go and watch. It was the first time I have ever been with him while he is working at the hospital. I honestly cannot imagine what surgery must be like. Maybe someday I will get to go and watch, but for now I guess I will be content with hearing about some of it.
Kristi

May Flowers

We have had our fair share of flowers here, finally. What they say about April is all true, it really is the cruelest month. We had snow on Easter, something I don't remember in the story books, although the bunny is always white, so maybe an Arctic Hare?

Life had been busy for us here in Akron. Spring has brought outside activities that include lawn care, garage cleaning, mowing the lawn, searching in vain for our little wading pool that blew away, emptying the lawn mower bag, playing with toads and riding our bikes as much as possible. As soon as it hit 60 degrees, the kids managed to get us to set up the slip-n-slide. I guess that winter coat is pretty thick still.
Jan is riding her bike without training wheels, and is able to keep pace with the runners on flat terrain. Alec is starting to think about riding without the training wheels on, but is not quite there yet. His asthma seems to be better controlled at the moment. Anne is still getting into all sorts of trouble, stirring up trouble, and just plain trouble whenever she is not being a very delightful child, which is most of the time. Pati has been the best baby ever, smiles even when sick, and lights up with a huge smile with any drop of attention.

We have been to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens most recently, which was great fun. We get in free with our pass to a local historic mansion site here in Akron, so that was why we were able to enjoy it. They even had a small children's garden where volunteers help keep the kids focused, hand our free trees that dad gets to plant when we get home, and a large indoor section including a rain forest with lots of butterflies, and an arid region with lizards and hedgehogs and such. Quite well-done and we all had fun there.

That wasn't enough for us, so we went to the Cleveland Zoo and had lunch with the elephants again. Pretty fun to be able to be so close to so many zoos and parks and activities. That is the nice thing about this area; we are close to everything. Within a 2-hr drive we have 5 nice zoos, 2.5 aquariums, 3 science centers (OMSI type), Lake Erie, the world's largest roller coaster park and lots of indoor and outdoor waterparks (some day later we will discover these), and countless metroparks that are usable year-round.

We also are becoming a bit more involved in Church. Kristi and I have been attending a series of weekend classes on how to study the Bible and communicate effectively (Hermeneutics and Homiletics). I most likely butchered the spelling there. Has been good, and we seem to be fitting in a bit more as well. Is tough to get involved when I am not there much, but I think we are doing a bit better.

Well, I have nothing more to add, seeing how I am here in the ICU on call at 3:30 am waiting for a CT scan to be done on a lady who has a bleed in her brain.

Drop us an email if you feel like it, or drop by if you can.

David