Three years ago today — I sent a txt message to a beautiful young woman.
The message read, “standby for a knock at your door.”
She didn’t get the message till 4 or 5 hours later and yet she hasn’t stopped getting my txt messages since.
Yup. 3 years ago today I met my wife for the very first time… (in person that is.)
Continue reading Happy “unofficial” anniversary to my Life
I LOVE THIS WOMAN!
For those interested or curious I found some info on Wikipedia about the EP study. She may also have a heart ablation (I’m hoping that’s the right link/description) as well — depending on how the EP study goes.
Ill post updates on my Twitter feed :: twitter.com/jdblundell
Well Laurie went and saw the neurologist this morning. I probably should have gone with her – I couldn’t focus on work after her initial txt message ;-).
The neurologist said she did fracture her t-spine in 4 places from her fall last week.
When she passed out last Tuesday morning she basically took a nose dive off the examination table and landed on the top of her head.
She then continued her roll and strained her neck and shoulder muscles.
The resulting compression from the fall is what likely fractured her t-spine.
She’s still in a good deal of pain but the neurologist said that because it is her spine and not her neck her rib cage works as a natural protection so no C-Collar is necessary and she can return to work tomorrow – but must avoid any heavy lifting.
The doctor expects her to heal naturally on her own and X-Rays from this morning seem to show that has already started.
Please continue to pray for her healing – specifically a continued reduction in her pain.
The mornings seem to be the worse and if she returns to work tomorrow she won’t be able to take any pain meds early in the morning to help reduce the pain.
Thanks again for all your prayers, txt messages, emails and such – and a special thanks to those of you who helped out by providing several meals for us!
We do have some great friends and family!
Related ::
Info on the T-spine
Vertigo :: Laurie’s recap of the fall
SSL :: Meeting the girl of my dreams
SSL :: Red Oak water supply and other updates
Almost 2 years ago… exactly (as I write this)… I sent a text message to a beautiful woman.
The message read, “standby for a knock at your door.”
She didn’t get the message till 4 or 5 hours later.
But in the meantime I met and got to know this same beautiful woman over a dinner at Blue Mesa, a trolley ride and coffee at Cafe Brazil.
Yup. 2 years ago today I met my wife for the very first time… in person that is.
Come to find out later – she’s not a big fan of Blue Mesa and she had a strict one-date rule. If she wasn’t impressed on the first date – you’re done – you’re through – no more attention from her.
Yet some how another I managed to impress her with not knowing where to board the trolley and running out of things to do by 8:30 p.m…. luckily you can always count on Cafe Brazil (or maybe it was the singing of the Aladdin theme that impressed her — doubtful).
Now after knowing her for two years its amazing to think about all the changes that have happened in our lives – and all for the better.
I can’t imagine my life any other way than with her by my side.
Happy “unofficial anniversary” Laurie. You are the pride of my life. I love you more than I ever thought possible!
So… what’s been going on at Casa de Blundell as of late?
Well as previously posted, Laurie gave us a bit of a scare earlier this week after doing a nice double-tuck roll off of an examination table at the doctor’s office. She landed on her head and ended up with a mild-concussion as well as a super sprained neck. She’s been suffering ever since but Thursday we took a drive to Garland to see her Primary Care Physician (PCP). Her PCP was able to prescribe some muscle relaxers and anti-inflamation pills. They’re not a “cure all” but they seem to be helping – and at least are helping her get some sleep at night.
While staying home with her this week I’ve made several online changes to SSL. As you may notice, its now SSL 3.1 (beta) – in addition to some new layout changes (hence the new “version”). I’m still debating a couple more possible changes but for now I’m mostly happy with the change. A few things you may notice and/or want to take note of:
I think that’s all the major changes. Let me know what you think.
The latest version of the Something Beautiful Podcast is live. This week I interviewed Jamie Moffett, a filmmaker who’s currently working on “The Ordinary Radicals” movie. I had a fun time interviewing Jamie and getting to know more about him. You can download the Mp3 of the podcast from the site, or simply click the play button within the show notes and listen to the podcast that way.
Finally…
[rant]
What’s the deal with the Red Oak Water Supply? I’ve never had much of a problem with public water supplies. But after nearly 9 months of living in Red Oak, we’ve still been unable to get used to the horrible taste of the water and apparently the super soft water is ruining countless shirts, pants and more when doing laundry.
We’ve tried using a Britta filter and it makes no difference whatsoever in the taste of the water. So, we’re “forced” to buy gallons of “bottled” water from the store… in addition to paying what seems like an extra high price for poor quality city water.
The taste is one thing, but it also appears that the soft water continues to make the colors run in our laundry. We try and do a good job of separating lights from darks but the other day another one of Laurie’s shirts was ruined with splotches of red across the front of her white t-shirt. There were no other dark colors in that load of laundry that I could tell – in fact the only thing I could deduct was that the red rings around the collar and sleeves of the shirt actually bled on to the white areas of the shirt.
Granted, I’ve found no solid “proof” that soft water makes colors run – but neither of us have ever had this kind of problem with our laundry until moving to Red Oak. I did however find this:
With the exception of a few higher tech systems, most water softeners require electricity and an avid supply of softener salt. Depending on the amount of soft water you use, your salt needs may differ. I have known families to go through more than a bag a month, and others go several months on the same bag.
In addition to the “hard†costs of having soft water (no pun intended), there are also some undesirable side-effects that may occur, including corrosion of water pipes. There has also been undocumented “speculation†as to the health risks associated with drinking water treated with high levels of iodized salt. (The easy solution is to make sure softened water is not being supplied to drinking faucets or fridge water dispensers.)
You may also not be a fan of the “slippery†feeling that soft water can leave on your skin. The only solution to this is to simply use far less soap, or switch to a synthetic option.
It also seems odd to me that the City of Red Oak chose to add additional supply to the water system by connecting to the City of Dallas (10-20 miles to the north) rather than connecting to the City of Waxahachie water supply which is building a brand new water treatment plant 2 miles south of the Red Oak city limits – and is adding more supply by tapping into Tarrant County Water Supply.
I look forward to getting “normal” Dallas water. But I’m not looking forward to hearing constant warnings about conserving water every summer as the Dallas water supply diminishes (not that I’m against conserving – its just that suddenly Red Oak becomes a very very little fish in a huge pond that’s already having huge water shortages) and I’m not looking forward to the “wonderful” taste Dallas water gets each fall when the “lakes turn” (something Waxahachie combats by keeping the water moving year round in Waxahachie Lake – their primary water source).
Finally, yesterday morning we woke up with maybe half of our normal water pressure throughout the house. And being a holiday there was no one at City Hall to answer any questions – but worse than that – there was no news item on the city’s website (I’ll save a rant about the annoying flash on that website for later), no recording telling folks what was going on on the water dept. phone line. No indication of anything – other than we had no water pressure and we just had to wait and hope it fixed itself before we called a plumber to have a look.
[/rant]
Well that’s about it. Now if I can just figure out why the tree in our backyard isn’t looking too healthy and why Presley’s paws are so red and why she keeps licking them….
Related ::
Vertigo :: Laurie’s recap of her fall
The Casa de Blundell Amazon.com store
Something Beautiful Podcast
Jamie Moffett
The Ordinary Radicals
Save Dallas Water
What is lake turning?
Red Oak Texas website