Katies VLog and Happy New Year Everyone!

My talented daughter has just made her first of many to come video blogs :Vlog. Please check her out and follow her on you tube. I think she has some great potential, and I am not just saying that because she's my daughter.(sniff, so proud!!).

I am still on the chest tubes and plan on staying on it for a few more days. The antibiotics are working well. I am draining slowly but now I have a lot of swelling in my legs. They are going to be doing ultrasound on them tomorrow to check for blood clots or any other reason for the abnormal swelling. I am beginning to look a little bit like a stalky tree trunk from the waist down. Otherwise, Neil stayed the night with me last night,which I loved, and then the kids came to see me today! I was so happy. They are going to be videoing the fireworks for me tonight and Neil may come back for an overnight tommorow night. Thank you for the phone calls and emails. I love hearing from you all and hope that everyone has a safe and HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!! love to all.

some progress

Today I am feeling a little lighter. I am not sure the exact amount, but my chest tubes are doing their job of getting some of the gook out. I have the same if not more pain, but the medicine is keeping that to a minimum. I have 3 days to go and then they will take out the tubes. I am not sure what is going to come after that but will let you know. Thank you for all your prayers.

Chest Tube Baby,,,,

Well they had to go ahead and give me the chest tubes this afternoon. It involves 3 tubes feeding straight into my lungs. They go in just under my breast and down into the lung cavity, It was some of the worst pressure I have felt in a long time, but it immediately removed over 200 cc's of fluid, This is to stay in for about 3 days as they slowly fill it with medicine, than turn on the pump and slowly suck it out, All I can say is thank goodness for painkillers! I feel pretty loopy and typing is a chore so until things change significantly this will be my last post for a while. Keep up those prayers and I am sending love your way,

morning report

It looks like they may have to put tubes into my lungs via my back to drain some of the fluid out mainly on the upper left side. This should aleviate a lot of pain that I have been having. It looks like I will be here through New Years. They have  me on all kinds of medicine. It is still quite painful to take a full breath.The infection is pretty bad. I am hoping that the tubes wont be as painful as the needles were but.....I am a bit bummed yet optimistic. I have a great and attentive group of doctors and they are doing all they can to make this go away with no permanent damage. I am looking at is as my "spa treatment" . haha.

Thank you for all of your encouragement.

Neil and the kids are doing real well. I miss them terribly. I am very proud of my kids who are doing a great job helping out dad too. (yes my family rocks!!)

Well I am not dead yet!

Hello boys and girls. I am sorry it has been a while since I have been on here. Right now I am sitting in my bed at the San Diego Medical Center. It seems that I contracted pneumonia and not the easy to fix kind. After a week (just at Christmas) of feeling crappy, I had to have Neil pull in the boat to the police dock and call 911. I thought I was in a dream, my heart was screaming, and my fever would not go down....along with several other things. After a few x rays and sonograms they confirmed the pneumonia they have proceeded with the following. A C T scan, and they stuck needles into my lungs and literally punctured them and withdrew samples, I have had several sonograms since. I guess my left side is full of fluid and it had some bacteria in it that has now spread into my blood. My white cells are pretty high.

They are not sure yet how long I will be in here. It could be a few days or a few weeks. Neil was nice enough to bring in my pc so I can update everyone.

I find it highly ironic that while we are stuck in port waiting for Neil's mess to be over with that I am the one who is in trouble!

The kids and Neil are doing fine. Katie is a great cook( taught her well) and Stew is the dishwasher king. I guess Foster is going a bit nutty and is in turn driving everyone else nuts too! haha

We had a great Christmas. Thank you to those of you who sent cards, and sorry to those I havent yet sent out.

I wanted to post our family's Christmas pic on Christmas Eve, but will do it now instead...

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well. I will try to update everyday that I can. We love you all and hope that everyone of you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

Lighted Boat Parade!

Well San Diego surprised us all with their annual lighted boat parade last night. I was very impressed to see so many powerboats and sailboats completely decked out from head to toe with lights and Christmas music playing loudly as they passed by. We were fortunate enough to be in the cruisers anchorage as they passed right in front of us. We turned the boat around and threw out a stern anchor and pulled down the hammocks. I popped some popcorn and it was a lovely 68 degrees. This was topping off the record breaking 88 degree temperature for the day. My oh my what a  lovely way to end the weekend and get you in a festive mood. This year's parade was a bit more spectacular in memory of a young boy who was accidentally killed at last year's parade by the coast guard....sad...but I can understand with so many lights and boats and all the glare and noise it is easy to miss a tiny little boat. The kid's ventured out in the dinghy but stayed farely close and had all the safety gear...it was pretty awsome.

Next week the puppy's get their shots so they can go ashore. This is a good thing as we were made very aware with Stacy's visit that they are not used to having guests or being around other people. So it will be good to get them a little more socialized.

Today is our last super hot day for a few days...Darn!! I will have to say goodbye to the amazingly warm weather and pull out the sweatshirts again. This is kinda neat though as it will put us in the holiday mood...time to do Santa's dirty work here next week!

I may even hang up some stockings with care on our hand rail!!

Stacy was here 2010

We had a great short visit with Stacy. In between her meetings we were able to squeeze in a trip out to the boat, a bite to eat and an evening sail. (we even got her in the hammock with a Daisy on her lap).
It was great to see her and we hope to be seeing her again. The weather was in our favor and I hope she didn't freeze her butt off too much when she opened the airport doors in Montana! (haha, gotta rub it in I know!). We sure do miss her and wish we all lived a little closer but with the internet today and being able to send pictures back and forth it sure makes it nice to be so far away.

We have gotten some papers for Neil to fill out this week. It was about 3 1/2 hours worth! I hope it leads somewhere good and we can be on our way after the new years...fingers crossed (again!).

We are enjoying this little big city here though. I may have to buy a string or two of lights to put on the front and back stay. I can't help myself. The weather is so lovely I have to remind myself that it is in fact December from time to time, only Santa is wearing a hawaiin shirt and some groovy board shorts!

Tomorrow we are going to be cutting holes in the boat again. This time it is to put in our windows that we have been sitting on for a while. These will be opening ports with screens attatched. They will be for the smaller ones. We planned on putting them in at La Paz, but might as well do it now. I am excited to be able to have a little more flow through when it gets a little warmer, minus the flys and other bugs...yeah!

That about wraps things up for the week. We are looking forward to the lighted boat parade this weekend and the near 80 degrees that was promissed to us via the weatherman for Sunday...I will be holding him to it.

For those of you who haven't seen a picture of Stacy...look below and you will find the prettiest red head ever, I swear! Not to mention the sweetest. (Love you sis!).

And now for an embarrassing moment....

Okay, I may be showing my age in this little story...it proves that the glasses I try not to wear,unless I absolutely have to, should be worn at all times....This will give you a chuckle, here goes...


Saturday Katie and I went down to the Starbucks to check our emails and stuff while enjoying a coffee treat. We are members of facebook. Katie told me that they were doing this thing where you change your profile picture to that of a favorite cartoon character when you were little in order to raise awareness for violence against children..(against it not for it!....yes bad taste...)anyway..

So I was a bit rushed and wasn't really paying attention when I "googled: Bugs Bunny Dressed As A Girl Bunny." This produced a picture of ole bugsy in a Jessica Rabbit Red Dress Ensemble. I copied it and pasted it to my profile page. A few minutes passed and Katie leans over and with a red face said "MOM!! Why did you post that picture?" To my defense I said, "because it is of Bugsy as a Girl Bunny." She said, "YA, a girl bunny with ...well....LOOK!!" She turned her screen around and my face must have turned ten shades of red. It seems my girl bunny had, well, how should I put this...."a weiner!" It was hanging out below the slit in his dress.....

I quickly went into panic mode to sign back in and DELETE DELETE DELETE!! I don't think anyone caught it and it was replaced with a new one, minus the twig and berries hanging out!

Next time I shall zoom in on the thumbnail images and remember to wear my glasses when copying and pasting.....haha!!

Other than that, it was a good laugh to be had on my expense and something that I won't forget.

Why am I sharing this with everyone??Because we are all human, and we are all in need of a chuckle...This one's on me!

I did get an email from Vicki and I thought this was a good idea that I will share:

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

Neil's sister flew in late last night. We hope to meet up with her later tonight in between her conferences. Yeah! The weather will be close to 73 tomorrow. This will make her not ever want to go back to the cold of Montana! (it works for me, sorry Bob, I think we may have to kidnap her!haha).

For those of you who have not sent me your addresses, please email them to me so that we can send out a little card for the holidays. I know that in the age of emails, facebook, and blogs that not many send things through the snail mail anymore, but I still enjoy it. Thanks!

Below is the "good one." No need to shield your eyes.

Almost Forgot..

Oh ya, I almost forgot that I have been passing the time by painting on our floor. It was in need of fresh paint so....I am painting it...see pics...

I have done it in little sections about 2 ft squares..I still have a lot more room..hey its only paint and I am having a ball with it! With pups and kids on board there is no rugs to be had  and not much room on the walls. This seems to be working! haha.

Time flys when you are having fun....

I can't believe it is the first week of December and it is still in the mid  60's to low 70's...Love it! It seems so bizzare to see the Christmas lights and decorations going up everywhere. I do enjoy seeing the city, which is growing on me, outside my window all lit up at night. I have gotten used to the 7am schedule change of the coast guard helicopters as they hover loudly overhead. I almost can't hear them and when I do it's like...time to get up and make some coffee!

Our 30 day city front permit is almost up! Wow! It has gone by so fast. We will be pulling bakc into Glorietta Bay for 9 days here real soon than back to the city for Christmas. I look forward to be right next to the beach again. Time to break out the surf boards and boogie boards for a couple of days anyway.

Neil has had some progress recently at least in the way of paperwork. It is rather frustrating playing the "Paper Chase" with everyone before anything starts to happen...all the ducks in a row I guess. Now the last of it is coming in and we should have a green light starting the end of the year. I think realistically we may be spending a good chunk of winter here. I am fine with this, New Year, New Advenure right? It has only been a year in the making but hey, that's what this game of life is all about.

We have gotten rather good at getting around town on our folding bicycles. It does look a little funny seeing two bikes and two people running around in a skiff every other day...but I am enjoying it. My leg muscles are still lacking but my stamina is better. I did invest in a padded seat cover in order to spare my "hiny" from any more discomfort..I do not know how the spandex wearing small seated bikers do it...my ass hurts just looking at them! haha!

We are looking forward to seeing Neil's sister here tomorrow. She is one of the sweetest ladies and also one of the prettiest red heads I have ever met! Although it will be a short visit I am glad that she is going to be here. I don't think Neil has seen her in person for over 4 years, maybe longer..same for me. Katie was the last to see her in person on her ranch last year...so watch out San Diego! haha.

To Jim and Kara...you know, we may just have our stuff together come February and you may just have us in tow afterall!! I think I can handle hot weather and warm water for...well....ever?? Keep me posted!

I know this one is a little lacking on the fascinating scale...the sunny days blend one into another...no schedules...just family, together, chilling out and enjoying each others company, exploring the city, on the boat, goofing off....sounds like a Halmark commercial, only this one is true! haha!

Stay warm everyone!