New Addition--It's Official

A few things have to happen before you officially join the Swegle family.  There has to be a beautiful ring, a proposal, the promise of a wedding, and most important--you have to have your name added to our Corn Hole board. 

 

Introducing our newest addition to the board--Brenda!!

Tony does the finishing touches....

 

 

TA DA...the finished product!

 

 

 

We are so happy to have her in our family.   She not only adds much to our family, she looks good on the board!

 

Lots has been going on of late.  The nurse who lost her son in the car accident that I wrote about last week has returned to work.  We had a conversation last night about Caleb and finding a new normal.   The family is working through their grief and getting ready for the upcoming trial.  Both teenagers are being charged with misdemeanor manslaughter, car theft, and theft of personal items, as various things that belonged to Caleb were pawned and the pawn ticket was found in the possession of the teenagers.   It's one of those situations where no one wins and everyone loses. 

 

Donna and Bob went back to Cleveland after two months down here.  We had a great time and finished their visit with dinner at a new restaurant in Southport, Olivers.  It was right on the water and had great food.

 

Dave and Kathy Henderson came to visit as well.  Tony and Dave worked together at Parker Hannifin.  They are a fun couple who are celebrating the birth of their second grandson.  Their daughter, Lauren, and her husband live in High Point, North Carolina.

 

Work has been "crazy" literally.  12 hour days, 4 hour waits to be seen by a doctor and high volumes of people coming in every day.   It is sad to see children as young as 8 being admitted for mental evaluation, but we have had several.  Add older people who have taken serious falls and lots of car accidents and you have a stressful environment.

 

Spring is on the way and temperatures are on the rise.  I feel funny about complaining about two months of cold weather, after living in Cleveland for so long, but geez, January and February did get cold down here.   Pretty soon, it will be time to go to the nursery and get flowers for the yard, something that always makes me happy. 

 

March brings Tony Jr going to Rio for Olympic planning and Tony Sr will be going to Charlotte to help Marie.  The month will be gone in a blink of an eye. 

 

It's like the ash tray my father used to have; it had the saying:  "Time marches on, damnit."  Now I know what that means!

A Child Died

 

 

A child died the other day.  I didn't know him...I had seen him once or twice, but I never talked to him.  I never found out how bright he was, or how polite.  I never ruffled his hair or teased him as adults do to children to make them laugh.  I passed him in the cafeteria when he was with his mother.   He was cute--13 and gangly--all legs and elbows.  He wore a baseball cap that his mother made him take off when they sat down to eat.  He prayed before they ate and  his mother watched him and smiled.  He had his mother's blonde hair and blue eyes.  His skin was tan and I found out after he died that he played baseball and soccer. 

 

So how did he die?  He died in a car accident.   He died because another child made a bad decision.   A senseless, impulsive, decision to take a car, go joyriding and speed.  The driver lost control of the car and it went left of center, hit a bridge with such force that it  split in two and both pieces of the vehicle went into a canal.  This child couldn't get out of his seat belt and he died in 7 feet of water.  The driver walked away relatively unharmed.

 

When we heard what happened, we all walked around saying that the same thing could have happened in our family and that makes me afraid.   We treasure our grandchildren as I am sure this child was treasured.  But, his parents couldn't save him, his religious education couldn't save him, his achievements in school and as an athlete couldn't save him.  His life was over in a few tragic, fearful minutes--all because of someone else's bad decision.  I hope that children and teenagers in this area learn something from this.  It's in the newspapers and on the TV news.   I hope they see that being cool can change your life forever. 

 

A child died the other day.  I didn't know him.  I wish now that I did. 

 

New Friends

I have said so many times that the best way to get me to smile is to take me to the beach--so that's what we did.  With all of this health stuff going on, I felt house-bound and pretty depressed so since the weather took a delightful jump into the '70's, we headed off to Wrightsville beach.  

 

I guess many people had the same idea since the beach was pretty crowded...and not just with people, but with dogs, too. 

 

There was quite a parade of dogs, all kinds, all sizes, all shapes; and just like us, enjoying the cool breeze and sunshine.

 

Here are some of the new friends we saw:

 

They are kind of hard to see, but we met these people in the parking lot.  The small black dog is a French Bulldog.  Not sure what the other one was, except big.  Either way, the Bulldog was the  bully!

Golden or Irish?  Not sure

A Dixie look alike



Friends!

 

A French Poodle Maybe?

High Stepper

Markings like Dixie

 

 

More Friends

Strutting Like a Boxer

Exploring

Follow the leader

 

Small but has no fear

The Call of the Wild

The Call of Nature

See my ears?

 

Our new friend, Lulu--we wanted a French Bulldog, but geez are they pricey

Lulu's Markings

A pensive Lulu

 

Love the Tail

Which way to the beach?

"It's a bird....I want to play with the bird....I'll even wag my tail"

"OK, no bird"

 

"I'm as cute as I am small"

This is a picture of Tony, but it's really me smiling on the other side of the camera!! 

 

 

 

 

 

The War is On

I have seen old pictures of myself recently and asked, "where is that woman today?"   In those pictures, I am smiling, I look happy and I appear to be in good health.  I have also noticed that during much of my adult life, my legs looked good.  My father used to tell me that I had my mother's legs.  She was an elevator operator in one of the large, downtown department stores when she was in her 20's.  He told me that when the elevator was coming down from floors above to the lobby area, all you could see was my mother's great legs arriving first. 

 

My legs aren't great anymore.  They are ravaged and riddled with the end results of a skin disorder.  I hate the way they look.  But, we continue to challenge the disorder with varying doses of medication, each one stronger than the last. But now, there is  a new "thing."

 

Last week, Tony and I were watching a movie and I grew more and more uncomfortable.  My left side felt heavy and it was painful to move.  I went to work the next day and could hardly get out of my chair to approach patients. I felt like a turtle who had been turned over, shell side down, struggling to right myself and get on with life.   Several members of the staff told me to sign myself into the Emergency Room, so I knew I must have looked as bad as I felt. 

 

One of my favorite doctors in the Emergency Room did a quick examination and told me I probably had pneumonia. 

 

I saw our primary care doctor and got a chest xray and blood work.  I  am currently waiting for confirmation of a diagnosis.  He talked about pneumonia, Lupus and even a collapsed lung.  Each word sapped more and more of my strength.  I am tired of being sick and tired of being in pain. 

 

Yesterday, I decided the battle is on, I want my healthy life back. 

 

I love the fitbit that we got for Christmas and find myself paying more attention to what I am eating.  I push for extra steps and analyze my sleep patterns, hoping that I can maximize my time at rest to add to being healthy.  

 

I can't wait to go shopping with Donna again, have dates with Tony and visit with David and his new fiancée, Brenda. 

 

I can't wait to look at pictures of me, smiling because I feel good...and look better.  Stay tuned! I may lose a day or two, but I will win the war. 

Family

We all  have memories of our childhood...things that stand out to us either as  every day occurrences, or when something strikes a chord in the depth of our being and we identify it as something we remember fondly from years ago.

 

That happened to me this morning.  We spent the night at Donna and Bob's condo in Sunset Beach, Sunday over Monday.  We watched football and just hung around.  It was nice.  This morning, I had to work, so we got up early and Tony dropped me at work.  While I was getting ready for work, I could hear Donna and Tony talking in the kitchen.  I couldn't hear words, but conversation and laughter. It reminded me of growing up.  Of approaching our kitchen and hearing our parents talking "grown up stuff." I couldn't hear their words either, but I knew they were talking about things that would make our lives better.   It was a comforting feeling.  I wondered if Tony and Donna spent time around their kitchen table talking and planning their lives with their parents.  Their ease in conversation made me hope that all of our children enjoy that.  That there is someone around their kitchen tables that they are making memories with that will last for a long time. 

 

Family.  Such an important word.  Such a complex word.  We love it, we reject it, we find it again--thankfully but we don't appreciate it every day as we should.   Family.  The tie that binds.  The tie that cuts.  The tie that is really a thread in our family tree than spans generations. 

 

Family...what a powerful word.

 

To support our family, Tony will be traveling to Charlotte in a few days.  I will miss him, but I know that he will be helping Tony and Marie and making family memories with the kids. 

 

Family...what a powerful word. 

Stepping Through Life

I confess to jumping on various fads throughout my life--I did the loose top that fell off of one shoulder ala Flash Dance in the '80's, hit the gym in the '90's and got a Financial Planner in the new millennium.   And now, there's Fitbit.  The newest thing in personal health care management.

 

I mentioned in another blog that Tony and Marie got us each a Fitbit for Christmas, but did I mention that we are hooked?  I don't think this will be a quick fad--this is an awareness.  Its' primary function is to track the steps you take throughout the day and encourage you to get to 10,000 steps a day.  It also measures your sleep and awake times after you go to bed, counts your calories, tracks your weight and sends you encouraging "badges" when you achieve a goal.  You can challenge and track others, change your goals as you achieve them and watch the rate of your heart at rest and during vigorous exercise.

 

I enjoy getting the weekly summary reports of my progress and measuring how busy work is by the number of steps I took there (today, I was 400 steps shy of 10,000--a very busy day!)

 

I notice that I am moving more--walking more--taking the long way instead of the short cut.  This is a good thing.

 

With the Fitbit and Donna in town until March, who knows, maybe I'll get more healthy.  Maybe I'll eat better.  Maybe I'll hit 10,000 steps everyday.  I am stepping through life with this wrist watch looking device that holds my day and what I do with it in its memory.  How cool is that?

 

 

 

Another Christmas

If life was a movie with commercials, I feel like we have been in fast forward for the past month or two.  We are present in the moment and glad for it, but with an eye to what is next.  Where do we have to be?  What has to get done?  What is my schedule and what can we fit in around it?  How can we click fast forward to get to the next "thing?"   Faster, faster, faster, time goes by. 

 

Christmas is over, but not our memories of the time we spent with Coleton and Anthony.  We went to see them the day after Christmas. Tony and Marie surprised us with "Fitbits" to keep us healthy.  We use ours to track our steps, calories, heart rate and sleep patterns.  It's a really cool thing.  I got my first weekly summary today.  It shows that on average, I sleep 4 hours a night and am either restless or awake the other times.  I think that may be a bit off, because it also shows that I take zero time to get to sleep.  In other words, when my head meets the pillow, I'm out.  And, I really do think I sleep more than 4 hours.  Must be the re-set time. 

 

We got the kids a gift certificate to ImaginOn, so they can see a play (when they are older) or take part in a planned activity.  We also got books and some fun things to do.  We got Anthony a farmer driving a toy tractor with farm animals in it that make noise.  The tractor drives forward and makes really cool sounds.  Anthony loved it--unfortunately, so did Coleton.  But, Tony and Marie did a great job of demonstrating the importance of sharing and not knocking down your little brother because you want to play with his toy and you think the adults in the kitchen aren't watching.   "I was trying to hug him," Coleton said after doing the classic football personal foul move that brought Anthony down on his padded butt!   It was one of those moments where you can't laugh because poor Anthony was knocked down, but Coleton was so creative! 

 

It was busy, but it was also a relaxing time in a way, because we just focused on being with the kids. 

 

Tony and Marie are doing so well in their careers and focus in life.  They seem to be at that point in their careers where anything is possible.  Where everything they do is right and golden.  Where they are making a difference in the company and growing in the process. Marie has taken on a new venture that may turn out to be her road to a new business life.  She is doing marketing and sales for Rodan and Fields, the doctors that created "Proactive," but this is more for general skin care and maintenance than fixing acne.  This is her own business and she can take it anywhere she wants to.   Tony is focused on Rio and the next Olympics and has been travelling to get things in motion.  But, after Rio, who knows?

 

We touched base with David and Brenda and found that they had a nice Christmas too.  We hope to see them soon.

 

Enjoy our time with the Charlotte Swegles....

 

Dixie sat under our suitcase to make sure we didn't forget to take her!!

 

 

OMG....can he be any more cute!!

Coleton and a marathon....."CHEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE!"

Fitbits and Babies!!

Daddy explains a "task chart..."

 

...While Mommy loves on Anthony!

...and Coleton!!

Coleton and his Papa

 

 

 

 

And tomorrow......well, get the candles, get the noise-makers, get the fire crackers!!!  Get ready for a celebration second to none.....Dixie's birthday!!!!

 

 

MORE TO COME....IT'S DIXIE'S DAY!!!