A Day Outside!

On Saturday, after a full nights rest, I got up and moving. My chest pains had subsided. I made breakfast, and Lydia got the kids ready. We ate and then when outside. We ended up spending most of the day outside.

Lydia and I pulled out the box that contained her swing. I opened it started pulling out the pieces. I got scared at first... I couldn't find the instructions! After searching everywhere, I opened the seat and there it was. Whew...!

Lydia studied a bit for her H&R Block classes relaxed at her lawn table (under the shade of the umbrella) while watching the kids. Malachi played a bit in the yard, got to swing for a bit, and took naps inside. Since the weather was pretty cool, we just set up his baby monitor in the window during his nap so Lydia could tell when he woke up. Mysia played on her fort, had some fun on her swing, enjoyed her slide, and took some markers and drew on the cardboard from Lydia's new swing.

All of that time of their fun, I spent putting the swing together. It was quite a task! Toward the end, Lydia helped with the swing part, after I had gotten the frame put together.

During one of the breaks, during Malachi's nap, we ate ice cream!

After getting the swing completely installed and put together, Lydia got out the water hose and sprayer. She started spraying Mysia and Malachi with a mist. Mysia liked it and squealed in delight... Malachi screamed. He didn't like it at all.

Lydia let Mysia play with the water, while she gave Malachi a haircut. I needed one too, so Lydia cut mine as well. After I was finished, I took the hose and washed all the hair clippings off my head. Lydia then sprayed me, getting all the loose hairs my shoulders and arms. We ended up squirting each other. Mysia sure enjoyed spraying us!

I then got a cool idea... I put the sprayer at the top of the slide, and told Mysia to slide down it. She did.... she flew off about three feet! After a few times, Lydia added to the idea by grabbing the semi-inflated toddler pool and putting it under the slide. With that, Mysia ended up sliding out of the pool!

With our neat idea put into play, it was Lydia and I to have a turn. Hey... we had fun! During our turns, we each slid out of the pool as well! As the pool started to fill with water, it stopped Mysia from going to far. Malachi just stood nearby and watched. He did not go near the pool. When Lydia tried to get him in, he screamed.

We had a blast. And as it was nearing 3pm, we decided to pack up everything up and go inside. Mysia hadn't had a nap, and we wanted to give both kids a bath. Mysia was first, then Malachi. Mysia ended up taking a nap on the couch. Dsuring this time, my chest pains were still present, but not super intense. I rested a bit, and Malachi played.

We had been invited to our Sunday School Class's activity that evening, so we dropped both kids off at Lydia's folks! Lydia and I then shared a great evening with our friends playing games, eating great food, and enjoying fun conversation...

A busy day, but a lot of fun!

~Matt

More Severe Chest Pains!

Yesterday (Friday, Aug. 22), after biking home from work, I played with Mysia and Malachi while Lydia finished making supper. My upper stomach started to hurt, but I just pushed it aside, mostly thinking I was hungry or that food would fix it. While we ate it worsened... it felt a little like heart burn or indigestion. So at Lydia's suggestion, I took some Tums.

Had I thought about it earlier, I should have taken my high dose ibuprofen (800 mg). Why, you may ask... well, for those who didn't get to read my incident during the bathtub installation (the post is here), let me go into detail.

Tietze's syndrome, also known as costochondritis, is a benign inflammation of one or more of the costal cartilages. It was first described in 1921 by the German surgeon Alexander Tietze (1864-1927)

The doctor had told me earlier that it can be caused by stress, heavy physical activity, and lack of sleep. We believe my lack of sleep the last two weeks has taken a toll on my body! I hate that I occasionally get these pains. At times, like last night, the pain can be so intense that I collapse to the ground while having difficulty breathing. That's why, according to online reports, it is often mistaken as a heart attack. The symptoms are very similar.

I can usually tell when my chest is acting up, and take that strong dose of ibuprofen before it really gets inflamed. Unfortunately, I didn't catch it in time last night! So, I spent the whole evening in bed, trying to get comfortable, hoping the pain resides. I feel better today... so far

~Matt

My Birthday weekend!

As I mentioned in my last post after Daryn and Amber's wedding we went to Wal-Mart to look for my Birthday present. Since we have a yard now I have really been wanting to get a swing (for me) and we had seen one at Wal-Mart that was fairly reasonable, so we decided to stop and pick it up since Matt would have to find time to put it together before my party, a week away. Well we get there and start looking around and at first we were a little frustrated because when we were there the last time we had also seen a patio set, table and chairs that was on sale, nothing fancy just a decent round plastic table and some nice looking chairs to go with it, well they weren't in the same spot we had seen them before so we're looking around trying to find them and finaly give up and go back out to where the swing is set up. While we're waiting for some one to comeover and help us with that I'm looking around and notice that the table and chairs have been moved to directly behind the swing so we look at it and get it put on the cart. Then we find out that the swings are sold out, the only one in the store is the one on display. So now we have three choices, we can take it as is, all put together, which means we'd have to find some one with a really big truck; or we could buy it and let them take it apart which would take a couple of days and hope that they give us all of the pieces and nothing breaks; or we can go home and order it on line and use site to store shipping. After discussing it for a while, we deside to go to the new Walmart closer to our house and see if they had one there, and if not order it on line. Our Wal-Mart didn't have it, so we went home and I ordered it on line only to dicover that the site-to-store shipping wasn't avalable on this item and it was going to cost us another $80 to have it shiped to the house, I was a little frustrated, but Matt said go ahead and order it, so I did. Now we just had to hope it would show up in time, I had also ordered and umbrella for the patio table, that was sent site-to-store.
The week was pretty normal, I watched Aaron and tried to get the house cleaned up in preparation for Saturday. Friday night, my sister took the kids to spend the night with her while Matt and I had a semi date-night, we took Abigail with us to an English Country Dance held by some local home-schoolers. It was a blast! This is not a dance as most of you would think of dance this is old fashioned, proper dancing, like in Pride and Prejudiced, no touching other than the hands, and the guys have to be gentlemen and ask the ladies and the girls have to be ladies and not ask the gentlemen; they also had a rule that unless you were in a committed relationship (married, engaged, dating/courting) you could not dance with the same partner twice. The dances aren't to hard once you figure them out, but you have to go through the steps several times to get it, at least I do and then when every one's got it and we start dancing to the music it goes very fast. I think I have finally figured out why women in the 1800 were so skinny! It is a wonderful workout, and a great time. This is the second Dance Matt and I have been to and we can't wait till they have another one. It is a great social activity.
Saturday, unfortunately, my umbrella and swing had not made it in yet, but we decided to have the party outside anyway. Matt grilled some burgers and hot dog and my family brought some side dishes, Matt's family, including his brother who lives in Columbia, came to, but Ben and Ana had taken them all out to eat so they weren't hungry. And our friend Noah dropped by and ate with us too. We rushed dinner a bit because Ben and Ana had to go, they had to drop her niece back off at her parents and then head back to Columbia. We had the cake and Ice cream, which Ana couldn't eat, cause she's expecting and I guess is high risk for developing gestational diabetes, anyway she's not allowed to have sweets during the pregnancy. Then I opened my presents I got a nice frame and shirt from Garry and Vicki, my in-laws, and Wal-Mart gift cards and cash from just about everyone else, which was exactly what I wanted, now I can go shopping and get me some new clothes and other things I had been wanting. yay! Sunday was church as usual and we had our monthly Birthday- anniversary dinner which meant I got to go first in line, the food was delicious, as usual. Monday was my birthday, I relaxed a bit, caught up on my email and other computer stuff, took two test for my H&R Block training courses and passed both! yay! And watched the kids, Matt volunteered to take me out to dinner, I didn't argue and we went to RibCrib which is really close to us and one of my favorite places to eat, and then I went and donated plasma. My umbrella came in on Tuesday and I went and picked it up after my Class, and on Wednesday the shipping company called and said they would deliver my swing on Thursday or Friday, it came Thursday morning, Matt is going to try and put it together tomorrow.
I got to go get Malachi out of the kitchen cabinets, for some reason he really likes to play in them and make a mess. :)
~Lydia

A Wedding!

Boy am I tired! I have just spent about the last 10 hours on my feet, running up and down stairs, here and there. Mysia was the flower girl in our friends Daryn and Amber's Wedding and I helped get her and the other flower girl and ring bearer in the right spot at the right time and was a general gofer for the bridal party. Not that I'm complaining I enjoyed being able to help and the wedding was so beautiful.
The church was decorated with an iron garden arbor/gate at the door, it was decorated nicely with vines, white flowers, and daisies. Each pew had a bunch of tulle (both white and yellow) and sunflowers and daisies. On the platform they had 4 iron (hollow) pillars, inside of the pillars they had white tulle and Christmas lights, tulle was also draped across the top and bottom of the pillars and on the on the outside of the pillars was a sunflower chain,the effect was wonderful.
The Bride wore a strapless white gown trimmed in buttercup yellow with a very small train and exquisite detailing. The Maid-of-Honor was the bride's sister and she wore a calf length skirt of buttercup yellow and a white top with yellow detailing. The first bride's maid was also the bride's sister and she wore a chiffon knee length dress of the same color. The grooms sister rounded out the bridal party and wore a floor length chiffon skirt a top that matched the MOH and a silk, yellow jacket. The groom's men were a good friend of the groom and his two brothers, they all wore black tuxes with yellow vests and bow ties. There were two flower girls and a ring bearer, the ring bearer wore a miniture of the grooms men's tux and the other flower girl wore a floor length yellow gown in style much like the bride's, and Mysia wore a knee length dress with a sheer overlay and small roses hanging down the side.
The Ceremony was pretty traditional, with the exception that instead of lighting a unity Candle they had unity sand, they had 3 different colors of sand White - to represent the Christian foundation of their lives and marriage, Blue - to represent the Groom and Yellow - to represent the Bride, which they poured into a heart shaped vase. The White sand was poured in first and and then the yellow and blue was layered until it was full. The vase also had the couples monogram and the date etched onto it. The Groom had also recorded a song for his bride that was played during the ceremony. They also dismissed each row of guest themselves.
The reception was wonderful, since they had taken all of the pictures before the ceremony they were able to mingle with their guests and enjoy themselves. The beucay was caught by the other flower girl and the garter by her older brother.
The Bride and groom changed into their going-away clothes and ran to their car amid a shower of bubbles, the car had been tastefully decorated by the groom's brothers. The couple is honeymooning in Branson.
Many people stayed afterwards to take down the decorations and get the church ready for services Sunday. After that was done we headed home, stopping at McDonald's for some luper (that's Lunch and Supper) and Walmart to get my birthday present, which we were able to get part of but I'll tell more about that later.
~Lydia