2+ Weeks in the Hospital part 2

Sorry, it has taken me so long to get back to this...

After the cardiologists came to the ER, they took my Dad up to the Cath Lab. This is where they go into an artery in your groin (OUCH) and inject a dye into your arteries in the heart. This then will show them what arteries are blocked. It was here that they found his Right Coronary Artery was 100% blocked - the cause of the heart attack.

While waiting in the waiting room, my Mom and I were constantly on the phone and 3 hours went by incredibly slow! When the doctor came out to tell us that they had found the blockage and had put 2 stents in, we were able to take a breath of relief! They allowed us to come back and see him right before we moved to ICU. It was so hard to keep the tears at bay. To be thankful, scared, and running on adrenalin all at the same time is an exhausting thing. I remember taking my Dad's hand and tried to make a joke so that way he would break down and would stay calm. I think it worked, but we were all still so frightened. At this point Jason was rushing to the airport trying to come out. My mom and I were both so thankful for this!

The rest of that day was spent just trying to keep Dad comfortable in ICU. Because of grateful support systems, I spent the night at some friends of ours because I didn't think I could stay home by myself, and my mom spent the night in the hospital.

Thursday morning, I picked Jason up at the airport and we drove to the hospital. It was so good to be all together, although we would have liked it to be in different circumstances. Thursday was a quiet day. Dad was moved from ICU to the Cardio Vascular Unit (CVU) and had a good rest of the day and night. It was Friday morning that was going to change all the progress he had made.

2+ Weeks in the Hospital part 1

I have been meaning to blog for quite a while, but it has been hard to put two thoughts together. September started out as a pretty normal month, only to be completely flip over on it's head on September 9th. Here is the first 2 hours. More to come...

September 9th was the day that I received a phone call from the YMCA, where my Dad plays basketball 3 days a week, telling me that my Dad was not feeling well and that they had called 911. So I changed directions from traveling up to Denver for a business meeting and headed down to the YMCA. Just as soon as I pulled up, a team of paramedics came rushing out with my Dad on a stretcher. Amazingly at this point, I had concern for my dad, but I was not panicking. All I could think about was driving and getting to the hospital. The paramedics handed me Dad's stuff and I jumped back into my car. This was the first time that I have ever seen my Dad in a state of weakness. He has always been the strong, steadfast Father and it almost broke my heart to see him laying on that stretcher.

My Mom works at one of the hospitals here in the springs, and was actually waiting for my Dad in the ER. I arrived about 15min later and my Mom came out with a worried look on her face. She explained to me that it was his heart and they were not sure what was going on. So I followed her into the Cardiac Room where I saw my Dad in a position that I will never forget. All I could think of was if he was going to make it.

He was surrounded by about 5 to 6 people at all times with several IV's and a breathing mask, but all this was secondary to the electrodes that were making his whole body jerk, which were keeping his heart pumping. It was almost more than I could stomach watching my Dad go through something that possibly he wouldn't come out of it. I just remember telling him that I loved him and then he turned his head, opened his eyes and made eye contact with both my Mom and I.

After about 2 hours of sitting there hoping that the doctors could get him stabilized, the Cardiologists came down and knew right away that he had had a heart attack. I don't know about you, but I was pretty much in shock. I was in denial, I don't remember too many other things that happened that day. But I remember that I was scared.

Kooza

Kooza was awesome. And we went on opening night so they had so much going on that it was well worth the price of the ticket!

The Big Top!

Kooza on the top of the Tent. Suz with our FREE cupcakes and Popcorn! Only on opening night though! We got free soda, popcorn, wine, cupcakes.. and more!

Ladies on stilts creating a tunnel for us to walk under...

Chillin during intermission.

They asked us to be in the show...

Us with our flowers that we got!

It was so much fun. I would totally recommend going. The talent was amazing. Sometimes you are just wondering if someone is going to fall and break their neck right in front of your eyes. It as incredible...

Generation Gap - It exists

I am part of the Gen Y. Meaning, I'm 24, I have a certain outlook on life, and am the future... Atleast that is what all the books are saying. I have always been one to think that no matter what generation you are apart of you think about life because of the stage you are in.

For example:: I have only probably about 5 real years of work experience (not counting the little jobs that I did). I probably have a very different perspective than some that has 15-20 years of work experience. Both perspectives are good, and I think that if both perspectives are willing to be open and learn new things from each other they would have a greater chance of growing.

I say all that to point out that there are 2 of us in the work situation that I am in now who are GenYers (the rest are in the more mature generations :). We (genYers) are creating our marketing, branding, website, designs, process, forms, vision, strategies, etc... Our idea of what is cool is usually very different than the others idea of cool. So we laugh about it and learn from each other. I think ultimately this brings out a much greater product/service/design/website... (fill in the blank). Because If we have all the perspectives weighing in on something than it will surely meet each individual out in the world! At least that is what we are hoping for!!!

Animal lover...

I do not have a dog... but I like dogs... sometimes. (I just don't like to be licked) I write this because I offered to dog sit this week for 2 dogs that look like this...

[You might think this looks cute...]
[All I see is a dirty mouth, smelly breath, slobbery tongue and needy personality]

They really aren't that bad, but it has made me realize that I will probably not be a dog owner any time soon. Which reminds me... I need to go feed them... oops!

The Single Life

**This post is not meant to be in any way looked at as though being single is a bad thing. It just happens to be the state of life that I am in**

Moving to a new state and being single has provided some quite interesting times. I love the freedom of choosing things that I want because I don't have to think about any one else. I love the flexibility to do basically whatever I feel like because nothing is tying me down. I am a firm believer in being grateful and content with the place you are in, so I am very content. Sure there are those times where I wish that I was sharing some of these moments with some one else, but I am pretty sure that day will come some time, so I am not worried about it. So this post is written from a very single perspective (no pun intended).

Being single means:

• Experiencing things a lone. I know what you are thinking, wow Jenn that was deep. The stories below I have not shared with anyone and enjoyed them alone. You really have to like yourself a lot to be single... haha
  
• Going to a new church, looking up the directions, getting lost, laughing, showing up late, sitting by your self in the smack dab middle of what can be assumed as the most newlyweds in one location, enjoying the service, leaving alone, going home, getting lost again, and laughing again.
• Standing in line at Panera with a strange guy standing in front with his sunglasses on the back of his head (weird). The backwards sunglasses guy kept trying to not-so-nonchalantly look at me and make eye contact, but I couldn't get over the backwards sun glasses...
• Going apartment shopping and realizing that you are the only one that can make what seems like a huge decision, so you just keep putting it off... by "you" I mean "me"
• Driving alone at night when guys feel it is totally appropriate to holler and talk to you... Never understood this. We are in two separate cars, driving two different directions, but yet you (the guy) have the sudden urge to talk to me... If some can explain that would be great.

So there is a little peak into my single life right now. Maybe some day I will share the Vegas stories...

Good Intentions

I am almost done with my cake for Threadcakes... Here is the original design that was designed for a t-shirt

So I started by Making the Rice Krispies that I would use for the sun and houses.

Then I got all the necessary equipment ready to be used!

Here I am coloring the Fondant green... this is quite the work out...

Love my Kitchen AIDE! It makes making the buttercream frosting so easy...

I forgot to take a picture of making the cake, but because I was pressed for time I just used a mix... which it is always a little more tricky getting it out of the pan for some reason...

Adding lots of frosting to the middle because I am going to cover the cake with Fondant and I don't like the taste of fondant... so hopefully this butter cream will make up for that...

As you can see a piece broke off when I was taking the cake out of the pan... no worries though... I am going to carve that right off! Good thing I wanted to do a sloped cake...

Getting the Fondant on the cake...

Getting all the wrinkles out and smoothing it to the cake... I always get to this point and want to just smash the last wrinkle... but if you keep working it out pretty soon it will all be flat on the cake...

Oh hey SUN! That is a rice krispie treat covered...

Here come the little houses...

Not perfect... but will have to do

It is starting to come together! Assembling it all is my favorite part!

Adding the water

Adding the little pitcher for the water to come out

Almost done!

And it is complete! Well almost, I just have to paint on the trees to the bottom, but can't find my paint brushes...

So it took me some time to do this cake, but it was definitely worth it! What do you think?