Flashback Friday - Life Story question

Steve and I have been planning to continue our story because we had fun doing it. We've been told that some people actually enjoyed reading it too. Here is our dilemma. We don't really see each other much during the week. In fact, this week it really has been very little. We usually have all day Saturday and Sunday, and this weekend we don't even have that. So, I am going to do something else for this week and then we will try to work on something during the week so that by Friday it will be ready to post.

I decided to cheat a little this week and pull a question out of my Life Story jar that would work for my Flashback Friday. The question is "Tell about any conditions surrounding your birth that you are aware of. Tell any interesting stories about your beginnings (how your name was chosen, any close calls)." Boy what a gem this is!

When I was 11 my mom wrote me a letter as part of a mutual project. It shares some about when I was born, but not all the really good stuff. But, I would like to share a little of it because it is in her words.

"I would like to tell you a little bit about the day you was born. It was a bright, sunny, early spring morning - March 26, 1977. We already had 2 little boys and were hoping to get a little girl. We were, of course, very please when we found out you was indeed a little girl. We were a little bit scared at first because you wasn't breathing right away, but it sure didn't take long to get you breathing. Once you started breathing, you started crying. What a set of lungs! You have been very quiet since then! Just kidding." (She really isn't kidding. I am a self-admitted loud-mouth!)

"You was one of the prettiest babies ever born at the Valley West Hospital in what was then called Granger, Utah. Things have really changed so it is now Pioneer Valley Hospital in West Valley City, Utah. The nurses made a fuss over you because you had so much long dark hair. At one time Dr. Astle, who delivered you, said, "One day she'll knock some young man for a loop." He thought you looked like you would really be pretty some day."

The next paragraph I am leaving out because it is very personal, but she mentions having health issues before and after I was born. When she was 4 months along, she started having contractions due to an asymptomatic urinary tract infection. This was obviously way to early to give birth so the hospital did what they could to stop the contractions. The way that was done at that time was through an alcohol drip. Yes, my mom got drunk due to this alcohol drip, this explains everything! She was a difficult patient and kept trying to get out of bed (very unlike her, she is a nurse and knows better), but in the end it worked and I was born only 3 weeks early.

Just after I was born they were not sure what my name would be. They knew my first name would be Mary because they wanted me to have that family name (it goes back to my great-great grandmother). Their inspiration for my middle name, what I would actually go by, came from an interesting source. When I was born, they still had shared hospital rooms and she was sharing with someone who also just gave birth to a little girl and also had a little boy. When her son came in to visit he was disappointed. He said "I wanted you to have a boy so we could name him Charlie Brown." They decided that would be a cute name for a girl, except as Charlene. So, I am named after Charlie Brown and I did not learn this until my friends gave me the nickname of Charlie (against my wishes) which ended up as Chuck (which I was okay with...go figure). Ironic.

What they didn't know at the time I was born was that part of the placenta had scarred next to the uterus due to the premature contractions. Since that part stayed behind her body didn't get the clear signal that she was not pregnant anymore and her milk did not come in. Therefore, I was not breast fed like my 7 siblings. I personally find this curious as I am the one in the family with the most health issues. It simply re-affirms to me the importance of breast milk. Anyway, about 5 weeks after I was born she started having issues due to the part of the placenta wall left behind. She ended up in the hospital with severe bleeding and the doctors gave her until a specified time to pull out of it or she would have an emergency hysterectomy. It looked like it was going to happen, but she was blessed and a half an hour before the determined time she pulled out of it and did not need to have the surgery.

She had 5 more children after that, all with very little or no complications. So, I say that I started out as a problem child and unfortunately I don't think much has changed. But I can say that I am truly grateful my mom was able to have more children for all the siblings I have. I would have been the youngest child and the only girl and if that had been the case I would have been a spoiled brat - no questions!

I have an amazing family and I am so blessed to be a part of it. I consider some of my siblings among my best friends and I can not imagine my life without them.

A busy week...

I can hardly believe it is already Thursday. We have had a lot of events this week so far, some fun, some not so much.

Monday started with a phone call to Britta. Abby went in for surgery to fix a hole in her heart. Being the worry wart that I am, I had to make sure she knew I was thinking about them and to express my love and concern. Also, I wanted to find out if they had received the e-card I sent for Abby to wish her luck. They did and Abby had already watched it over and over again. Britta told me she would let me know how things went and I mentioned that I would like to come up to visit later if Abby was up to it. It was a simple procedure, done in the catheter lab instead of the operating room, and everthing went well.

After work I had a chiropractor appointment. It was a consultation from my most recent re-exam(I am now on a maintenance schedule) and it was in and out. So, I headed up to Primary's after the appointment. Abby was very antsy and ready for something different. She was exhausted and struggled with her emotions for a little bit but overall did amazingly well. I read her a few stories and chatted with Britta some. We also took a picture of her silly glowing thumb.

Eventually I felt I needed to go help my parents and she didn't want me to go. But she had dinner on the way, pepperoni pizza(her favorite) and a cupcake with sprinkles, so she was ok.

My parents have been remodeling their bathroom downstairs and were also getting the house cleaned up in preparation for my brother Seth to come home from his mission on Tuesday. For those of you familiar with my parent's yard you will be glad to know that it is now tub free! Shortly after I arrived at their place, they realized that their a/c was no longer working. The compressor quit. I was trying to help clean, but it wasn't very easy to do while being miserably hot. Overall, Monday was good and busy day.

Tuesday morning Seth came home, bright and early. I did not go to the airport. I planned to be at work all day. That morning, my body had a different idea. I did not feel well and stayed in bed. I thought I just needed more sleep and that I would make it in later. Then I woke up later. My throat was screaming at me! I called in sick because I thought I may have caught something that Ranna had been sick with for days already. I felt very yucky and almost stayed in bed. Then Steve said he wanted to go see Seth before he had to go to work. I figured I could lay around at my parent's house just as easily as I could at home. So, we got out the door and visited for a bit. Then Steve went to work and he left me there. It was quite the busy house! I still felt rather yucky all day but it was definitely better than staying at home.

This is of course the Reader's Digest condensed version, but you get the idea. The past two days I have been very busy at work and have come home exhausted. Maybe I will actually have the energy to post a Flashback Friday tomorrow....

He's at it again...

If you didn't already know, Steve is addicted to his flight simulator. He is like a kid in a candy store and being able to fly will cure almost any foul mood. Notice I say almost. Anyway, he loved to teach anyone and everyone he can how to fly.

Case in point, Steve's brother and family came to visit today. Steve and Ryan linked the two computers and were flying 747s in formation and Steve was so excited he asked Melissa and I to come in at see it. While we were there he held Mike for a bit. Mike, being only 8 months old, naturally grabbed the nifty toys in front of him. It made quite the cute picture that I just had to share.


Steve really is so good with kids. It is one of my favorite things to see because he is just him, no walls, no fronts. It's cute!

Forget summer, it's the season of construction...

You know the joke, "There are only 2 seasons in Utah...Winter and Construction"? It's true! We are even experiencing it at our apartments in the parking lot. Many of you know how spacious our parking lot is so I am sure you are wondering how we could even possibly be affected by this...

The landlord is getting the asphalt repaired. It has been cracking and falling pretty badly in some spots. Half of the entire parking lot was blocked off by cones and equipment. This means for anyone who's spot is unavailable has to find one of the many unmarked stalls or gets to park on the street. Right now we are lucky enough to have access to our stall but soon they will need to work on the other side and we won't.

If they were smart, they would only keep the absolutely necessary parking spots unavailable. But, after they finished for the day today, several are very much "parkable" yet blocked off.

Duh!

Another brief update

These updates may get annoying, but it is the best way I know how to spread the word without spending countless hours on the phone.

Steve was supposed to have more tests done today. However, he found out yesterday afternoon that he wasn't supposed to eat anything after breakfast yesterday morning. So, we have to reschedule and the office is being very difficult about it with us. We didn't even get the registration/information forms from the the mail until I got home from work yesterday.

We'll let you know when we have updates.

Flashback Friday...or not

Today has been an interesting day. I had the day off from work because I "get" to work tomorrow. So I spent most of the day with Steve, being silly and dancing around the house while he looked at me as if I had gone crazy. At one point he said I was driving him nuts. So I asked him "do you wish I was at work yet?" To this he responded very promptly "no". Good. I was just driving him nuts. He still wanted me there, just in maybe a less crazy mode. I told him he needed to be grateful that I was hyper because it doesn't happen enough. Among being hyper, I was very relaxed. This doesn't happen nearly enough for me. I need to fix that...

After Steve left for work I decided to go play at Britta's house. I don't do it often enough and even though it was only for a few hours it is always a treat for me. I love playing with Abby and Landon. I even "helped" Abby clean her room. She wanted me to toss her on the bed repeatedly. So I told her pick up three toys and then I will. Each time she wanted to be tossed she had to pick up three toys before I would. It got the room clean pretty quick!

After I left her house my evening got less relaxing. I did some shopping, some casual/fun and some not so much. By the time I got home (15 minutes ago) I realized I had not eaten any dinner and I am now emotional and frustrated. The Reader's Digest condensed version is, I'm not going to post my Flashback Friday topic tonight. Maybe tomorrow, after I am home from work, while Steve is in Logan working. Yeah. We'll see.

Brief update

Steve is finally back at work tonight. We got the results back from the test earlier this week. There is something going on with his liver. We don't have anything confirmed right now, but it is looking like something that is not going to just go away with antibiotics...it could be a life long thing. He has more tests scheduled for next week (the dr. said urgent and Tuesday is the first time available).

Meanwhile, he is in good spirits and has been focusing on keeping his attitude positive. It has been a good help for me because I am a worry-wart and feel that there is nothing I can do to help him. He did receive a blessing last night which, as always, really seems to have made a difference. Thank you for your thoughts and concerns. We will keep you posted.

Very sick

Just a quick update.

Steve is on his way home from the doctor. He is a very sick boy. I don't know all the details, I just know he is miserable. He also has a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow morning and possibly other tests to come.

So, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Flashback Friday - Our first date

The next few Flashback Friday installments will be about Steve and I meeting, dating, etc. And, for extra fun(at least this week), it will be told by both of us.

Charlene: Steve and I met over the internet. Not on any dating site, just by Yahoo! messenger. Steve decided one night, while he was working, on Valentine's Day, to look up profiles. He sent me an offline message, I happened to be out with a boyfriend for Valentine's Day.

Steve: Actually, I had seen her profile about a dozen or so times, I was just ticked off because my log time girlfriend and I had broken up.... about 6 months ago. So, there I was on 'single-awareness day' having to work. I was bitter. Very bitter. (big shock, right?) I was the supervisor out that night and I didn't want to work, so I assigned all the patrol work to the patrolman and I sat in the DI parking lot (4700s 4000w) and cruised the internet in my car. I think the message I sent her went somthing like "Hey, I'm Steve. Saw your profile and decided that since I'm such a freakin loser who is working on Valentines Day I would send ya a message. Hope to hear from you soon." Smooth arent I?

Charlene: I wish he was kidding. For some reason, I used to get quite a few offline message from guys commenting on my profile picture. I would respond to each of them and only about 1/4 of them would ever respond back. Steve was one of them. Now, let me remind you, I had a "boyfriend" at the time. I should not have been with this guy(anyone will tell you) and I knew it. We knew we weren't going to get married so we agreed we could date other people. So I did. Steve and I wrote on Yahoo! Messenger for several weeks before he asked me out to lunch. I didn't really want to go. See, Steve is several years younger than me, along with a few other things I didn't really want to deal with. The first time he asked me out I actually couldn't go. He wanted to go to lunch and I had to stay at work. The second time he asked me out I had a date scheduled for that evening, I looked cute and I was in a good mood. I figured why not. It will at least get him off my back.

Steve: If you know anything about me, you know that I'm determined to get my way and stubborn as a mule. My rule was 'if at first you don't succeed, carpet bomb em till they submit!' The second time I asked her to lunch, it was spontaneous. I am NOT a spontaneous person. To my utter surprize- she agreed. She gave me the address to her office and I headed off that way. I was excited. I had just left the gym and had my entire paycheck in my pocket because I didn't REALLY believe in bank accounts back then.

Now, mind you, I made my living responding to house and business alarms. I am pretty good at finding places. Yeah, couldn't find her office. Could not for the life of me find that place. I think I called her 3 or 4 times asking 'Ok, now where is it again?' I felt like a dope.

Well, I finally find it and I park. Then it hits me. Dude, you JUST left the gym.... after a 40 minute cardio, and hour on the weights and 15 minutes of more cardio. I'm sweaty, stinky, wearing blue Nike warm up pants, Basketball shorts, a grey tank top, and a ball cap. Oh crap!

So, I did what any sane, rational, and fashion oriented person would do. I popped the trunk PRAYING that there was somthing there I could wear. As a testimant of my luck, all that was there was one of my old waist long western jackets. This one was green on top, black on bottom and had a southwestern pattern trim where the colors meet. 'Screw it! I'm here.' So, I popped that jacket on, zipped it up half way, pushed the sleeves up, twisted my ballcap around backwards and in I went. Bravely going where no man (or anyone else should) has gone..I marched on in to the office!

Charlene: Oh boy, what a first impression he made! By the time he actually made to the office I was already not impressed. The office building is located directly on 4500 South. How can you miss it? When he walked in he looked like the biggest dork. I gave a glance to my co-worker and told her I would be back. I couldn't believe I was actually going to go to lunch with him. Lucky for me, I didn't actually notice he had been sweating. The jacket did the trick. Of course, I was probably too distracted by the backwards baseball cap.

Steve: Now, I decided we would go to the American Grill at the Cottonwood Mall. Mostly because it was close and I was cheap. It just so happens that I used to work there and my dad was the mall Operations Manager.

So, we get on the road and we're making small talk and my phone rings. It's my dad. See, he's a diabetic and forgot to pack a lunch. His bloodsugar was getting low and he needed to eat. He asked me if I was in the area and if he could borrow a few bucks for a lunch. I figured 'well this date is shot to hell anyway' "Tell ya what, I'm on my way to American Grill. Why don't ya just join us?"

"Hey, my dad works at the mall and forgot his lunch. He'll be joining us."

Charlene: What?! How bad can this date get? Now I'm going to lunch with his dad too? What I didn't know at the time, is Steve's dad is the man of a thousand jokes. The same 2, 500 times. And if he doesn't know a joke for a situation, he will make one up. The other thing I didn't know, don't laugh, it encourages him. So as we are sitting at lunch I've got Steve's dad telling jokes non-stop and Steve trying to learn something about me. Needless to say it didn't go so well.

Steve: Didn't go well? Well.. there's the UNDERSTATMENT of the year! On top of everything else that went wrong, they sat us right next to the grill. So, it's about 9000 degrees and I've got a COAT ON! I was sweating like a pig at a bacon farm! My dad, whom I love dearly, is telling the most awful jokes, I'm dying of heat and my brain is not functioning. (obviously. If it was, I wouldn't have asked her out after the gym!) Finally, I lose my appetite. I simply cannot eat. All I can do is drink copious ammounts of water and pray she finishes her meal soon or I am just gonna upchuck right there on the table.

Well, Charlene finishes and I tell my dad we need to go. Guy had us married off right then and there. No joke. We get back in the car and Charlene asks me the oddest thing I think I have ever been asked on a date.

Charlene: By this time, I was pretty sure I was never going to see him again. We were driving by the bank, so I asked him if he would stop so I could cash my paycheck, which I had received just before leaving for lunch. I know,bad move. But that was my plan. I didn't want him to call me back...ever! He took me back to the office, I said thank you, and I nearly ran back into the building. Man was I glad I had another date with someone else that night to make up for this one!

Steve: 'Well THAT sucked!' I drove back home to North Ogden kicking myself the entire way. '..what kind of idiot goes to a date dressed...UGH!' I was glad when that day was over. It was one of my rare days off and I was happy to be in bed during the night rather than working.

When I woke up, somthing odd happened. I opened my eyes and the spirit in the room was almost the strongest I have ever felt it. It also happened to be one of the few times that he whispered to me and I listened. I sat straight up and said audibly "Ok. I'm going to marry her."

The past is complete!

I have finished moving over all of my past blogs from my MySpace blog. If you want to read the past entries, feel free. Just wanted to let you know they are there.

Tagged!

Tagged by Britta

If I tagged you here's what you do. Post the words in all caps below and fill in info about yourself. Then, at the end you tell who you are tagging & go and tag 5 friends on their blogs. It's just a way to get to know fun little things about people.

TEN YEARS AGO...... I had graduated from Snow College and was working full time for University Surgical Associates (where I met Karla - our HR coordinator). I was getting talking about moving into an apartment with my cousin, Lori.

FIVE PLACES I HAVE LIVED..... West Jordan, Ephraim, Murray, Bountiful, North Ogden

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST...... Finish the dishes, sort through the various piles of papers and bills, organize said piles, fix Karla's necklace, and go to bed on time.

I ENJOY..... crocheting, cross stitch, beading, dancing, colorguard and just haniging out.

THREE BAD HABITS..... Procrastination (can this count as all three...it's that bad!), playing too many games, and going to bed too late.

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME..... I played the flute in junior high school, I played soccer as a child, I was a dancer (this is the only reason I am as coordinated as I am), I can/like to sing, and I am somewhat of a gamer.

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD..... TruGreen Chemlawn calling to offer free lawn estimates, day care, Head Counselor for Salt Lake County Parks & Rec Adaptive Day Camp program, Billing Clerk for University Surgical Associates, DDI VANTAGE (does this count for three?)

I TAG..... Anyone who wants to join.

New blog site

For the benefit of many of my family and friends, I have decided to move my blog here. I will be working on bringing over at least some of my posts from my MySpace blog so people without a MySpace page can read them. I do not know if I will be continuing the MySpace blog or not yet. We will see...

I love my clothes...well, most of them.

This morning I didn't feel well when I got up. I'm not sure if it is allergies throwing me off or if I really am fighting something. I've felt at least a little off all day.

BUT....

At least I looked good. Thanks to my recent shopping sprees (thanks to a bonus and such) I have been able to get some clothes that are comfortable and look good so it makes it much easier for me on days like today. Also, for reasons I have yet to figure out, my hair has been playing nice lately and has been quick and easy to do.

Gotta love it!