An Unexpected Trip

I can't believe it's July this week already - my month of June was a blur as I spent most of my time in the northwest. This last week's venture up to Seattle was truly unexpected and unplanned, but as this week begins, I am counting my blessings, and thought I would share them with you.

Even though I miss my dad terribly, I am grateful to my loving mom and siblings who are still with me on this earth. I love them all so very much and appreciate all they do for me.

Words cannot express how thankful I am to have such a loving and supportive husband who has been my rock through all of this. He always seemed to know just the right things to say and know when to make me laugh, or when to let my cry.

My kids have been there to make me laugh (and cry in frustration, but I'll try not to think about that right now).
Several of these pictures are from the day after the funeral. When John booked our tickets, he suggested spending the day after the funeral doing something fun to help relieve the stress. My mom and two sisters thought that was a great idea too, so they and their families joined up with us. We spent the day in Seattle doing typical touristy things; walking along the waterfront, riding a carousel on one of the piers, eating fish and chips at Ivars, taking a ferry ride (something my girls have never done before), and checking out the sights around the space needle. It was just what we needed...thanks John for the great idea.

I am also deeply grateful to my extended family and friends. I have been lucky to be surrounded by such love this last month. Here is a picture of all the Meldrums in attendance last week. My dad was the youngest 0f 5 siblings, and well loved by all.

And here is our last family portrait with our dad. Okay, here come the tears...good thing I have Kleenex handy and a pan of brownies waiting for me up in the kitchen. I tell ya' - there is something to be said about chocolate being comfort food, because it has been my main stay for the last couple of weeks. Enjoy the pics, and I promise this will be my last boob fest on my blog and move onto to other fun things in our life.

My Dad...

I'm back from my very sad and emotional week up in Seattle. I have never felt such deep sorrow or tasted such exquisite grief - I have never cried so much in a week's time - and my emotions change hourly (I don't think it helps to have pregnancy hormones on top of this). I can't talk about it yet because I am still so devastated by the loss of my dad, but I will soon...so don't forget about my blog :)

Thank you to all of you who have been so loving and kind with calls, prayers, and thoughts my way. I have certainly felt buoyed up on countless occasions.

Glen Meldrum

For our friends living at a distance from us, Dana's father passed away yesterday. It looks like a second heart attack

News on Dad and Baby Gender

I know, boring title, but after the emotional weekend, I'm out of creativity for the moment. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts as they were certainly felt. My dad has had an amazingly speedy recovery so I was able to head home on Monday night after he was stable and even able to talk to me briefly. It was a huge relief for all of us to see him doing so much better yesterday, and after talking to my mom this morning, he is still progressing well.

I thought I would also let you know the official news of the baby ultrasound this morning. John is already dreading the teen years as there will not just be 3 girls, but 4 GIRLS!!!! Yes, you read correctly and trust me, we are still adjusting to the news as well. The odds of having 4 girls in a row are so minimal, that we thought for sure there would be a boy added to the mix. However, we are thrilled that she is healthy and everything looks good, so everything will be just fine :)

Finally, some good news

By John

I really wanted to post some great news yesterday that Dad was off the machines, but it didn't come to be. However, all those tests that were put off until today (Monday) were actually ran yesterday. Sat. overnight, the hospital staff was able to start backing off the heart pump. Consequently, Dad stabilized enough to run the tests yesterday. The doctors learned that the damage to Dad's heart was not as extensive as feared. In fact, his heart is in really good shape considering its ordeal. They tribute Dad's presence of mind to call 911 himself from the side of the highway, and the quick treatment at the first hospital.

The plan yesterday afternoon was to take him off the heart pump and then remove the ventilator later that evening. Well, he's off the heart pump!!! However, the doctors later chose to wait until this morning to take him off the ventilator. Having a tube crammed down your throat isn't the most pleasant experience. It is common to have a lot of coughing and phlegm when the tube is removed. All of this is exacerbated by laying down. Dad wouldn't have rested very well if he was coughing all night. So, they decided to wait until this morning when Dad would be sitting up. The plan is to have him out of the hospital by then end of the week.

Dana, and her family, is finally cheerful again; you can hear it in their voices. There is still a lot of reason to be concerned over then next several months, but it looks very good for Dad! And that is good for all of us!

Update...

By John

Didn't realize Dana was blogging at 6:00 AM!!! Two posts in one day; you are all so lucky! :)

Since many of you are concerned, I have an update about Dad. Some good news, some not so good news. The first 24 hours are past which is a good sign. Unfortunately, he is still in very critical condition. In fact, if it wasn't for modern medical machines, he wouldn't be here. (It really is a good time in history to be alive!) The tests to find out how much damage was done to Dad's heart were postponed until Monday. Dad is stable, but not stable enough. His cardiologists have commented on the great amount of fight in Dad. So, we are all hopeful.

On a personal note, it is great to have such good friends and family. Thank you for all of you kind thoughts, prayers, and love. We've been inundated with calls, voice mails, and visits. I'll continue to pass everything along to Dana and her family.

Not the Weekend I had planned...

This Sunday marks the anniversary of 12 wedded years of bliss for John and I, so we of course had fun plans to go out to dinner tonight. We were going to try out the Melting Pot in Salt Lake. Thank you John for 12 wonderful years (sorry for the sap guys - it won't last long I promise).

Sadly, my weekend plans changed last night and now I am racing against time up to Seattle to see my dad who had a massive heart attack last night. I spoke to one of the nurses working on his case, and he couldn't have suffered in a worse spot in his heart. They put in one stint, but after it failed, but in a second one. For now it is holding, but the next 24 hours are critical. If it fails, the nurse told me there is not much they can do. My dad is going in for some kind of test this morning to see how much damage has been done to the heart, and where to go from here.

My dad is the healthiest horse on the block. He exercises every day and watches what he eats faithfully. In fact, he had just finished up exercising yesterday and was headed to work when he experienced the heart attack.

I have been such a mess, I probably would have forgotten to post something, but I have such wonderful family and friends and as I have experienced the miraculous power of prayer numerous times in my life and my family, I had to get on to humbly ask for more prayers in behalf of my dad. Thank you so much for all you do for me.

Family Renion at the Beach

The girls and I drove up to Portland for a week with the help of my mom (now that's love, I tell ya'). John had zilcho vacation time with his new company, so we flew him up later on for the weekend. Here are some highlights from our trip -

Rose Garden and children's museum in Portland with Christy

and her boys before we headed out to the beach.

View of Manzanita Beach from the beach house.


One of the few moments of sun we saw, so a freezing swim was a must!



We really had the beach to ourselves - always a plus.


Crafts with grandpa


Bikes on the beach, which was actually plan D. Several of us headed out to ride horses. Unfortunately, the only two places we knew of both told us they weren't doing horse riding this year. So we moved on to plan b - some go carts just down the street. Just our luck...not open on Friday. No problem. There was a bumper car place further on down the road by the beach in Seaside. Things were definitely not going our way. They were closed too. We parked the car and found an ice cream shop to decide what to do with our afternoon.

On the way, we found a place that rented out these cool beach bikes. It's harder than it looks. You have to balance yourself and steer with two hand cranks and shift your weight. Even harder was the bike pulling the bike trailer. Thankfully my dad, Shannon, and I took turns pulling Natalie. Kimberly and Alicia zipped along the beach on their bikes and we had a blast (aside from the very sore legs afterwords!)

Visiting with the gang (missing: mom and dad, Mike and John - who are over to the side working on a puzzle)




And best of all - having John join us and spending another rare sunny moment on the beach.

Mysterious Case of the Lost Lovey Bear

Natalie has a very strong attachment to a small pooh bear that she often misplaces, but thankfully we usually locate it within a reasonable amount of time. This was not the case last night when she carted it off somewhere in the house. When I came home from running errands, John told me they had all searched the house, but no luck. Thankfully, she went to sleep alright with one of her other lovies.

It became a problem at 3 a.m.

Natalie started screaming. Her replacement lovey was unacceptable and she was only ratcheting up her screaming level. In a desperate attempt to find her bear, we began turning the house upside down, double and triple checking every place throughout the house a bear might find attractive. At 3:30 a.m., we still had not found the stinking bear. John decided to let Natalie help search in hopes she remembered where she had last played with it. She was so cute helping look, even bending down and checking different nooks and crannies.

Still no luck. I happened to find one of her bunnies in the older girls room that she seems to like somewhat, so we gave it to her and she settled down. Of course, this meant John and I were WIDE awake at 3:45 a.m. This did not make for a pleasant wake-up call when John's alarm went off at 7 a.m. Better luck tonight.

I have resumed searching for the long lost bear today, but to no avail. I think Natalie is just going to have to make do with the bunny until bear decides to come out from his hiding place.

Did you miss me?

I'm back from the beach, so I can resume blogging now...that is after I can get my house put back together again.