Nate: then and now

As you can see Nate hasn't changed in 16 years. The first picture he took of himself. I think he was about four.

The newspaper clipping was from his school's newspaper, just a few weeks ago.

He hasn't changed. Now at 20 he still acts as innocent as a little boy. Maybe that's why he's always so optimistic. By the way, the saying on the newspaper clipping in a n8 original.

Vertigo=Dizziness

How would I know that you ask. I know this because on Monday I spent the day in the emergency room diagnosed with vertigo. I will be honest I did not know exactly what that was. I woke up and couldn't even stand.

Being sick is a big pain when you're a teacher. You have to call the sub service, then you have to get lesson plans together. I couldn't even keep my eyes open, so I was dictating my plans to Dan. Luckily Dan and I work together, so he was able to fill my sub in when he got to work.

I slept until about 9:00 am thining maybe it was the flu. At 10:00 when it was no better I called the Dr. and they told me to go right to the emergency room. I didn't have to wait that long before they came in and gave me some pills (similar to those taken for motion sickness) After 2 hours of waiting for the pills to take efffect I was allowed to go home. I spent the rest of the day on the couch.

I can't drive for a week and I am supposet to avoid steps. I will go see my Dr. next week - hopefully it's not a reaccuring thing.

Happy Valentine's Day

Usually Dan and I have Wendy's on Valentine's Day, honoring our engagement. This year we decided to act more like adults. Dan made reservations at Weber's in Ann Arbor probably 6 weeks ago. I've been working out like crazy and treated myself to a sexy black dress to wear for our romantic dinner.

We get to the hotel and our credit card wouldn't go through - even though there was plenty of money in the checking account. (I'll have to deal with this on Tuesday) We're remaining calm, looking forward to a wonderful weekend.

I go to change into that sexy dress, and as I zip it up the zipper breaks!! I was so upset. I have been killing myself in the gym, and now I have no dress to wear. Not so calm now, we decide to make the most of it and dress down for our dinner reservations.

We get to the restaurant for our 7:30 reservation, and they're running behind. Twenty minutes later we finally get seated. Still calm, especially since most people were dressed like we were - the black dress would have definitely been over doing it.

As we sit at our table waiters and waitresses buzz around, yet no one stops. A half hour later a waiter (not our waiter) asks us if we have been helped. We smile and say no - you never know what they might do to your food before it comes out. He (Pablo) did make things right and he became our waiter. His service awesome, well worth the wait.

After many, many bumps in the road we ended up having a lovely Valentine's weekend. Not one thing happened as planned, but the outcome is one that we will remember.

Oh yeah, way better than Wendy's!!

I'm still going to wear that black dress (once I get it fixed).

My favorite Super Bowl commercial

Bridgestone: Potato Heads

Crash

In looking at the pictures I wonder how I wasn't hurt more than I am (sore neck, sore chest, bruised knee and I bit through my tongue.) I'm telling people that the car did what it was suppose to do - save my life.


Here's what happened:

I'm going down Carleton Rd from Kroger to Gier School for a meeting
I go through the intersection at Carleton and Fayette and this woman decides to turn left from Carleton Rd onto Fayette St. turning right into me.
Of course this happens at 4:00 when the elementary schools are getting out
Cars and buses and cars full of kids are backed up.
When the accident happened my airbags opened. I have never been in an accident like this before. I didn't know that there was a powder smoke that filled the car after the airbags were deployed
I thought the car was on fire. I couldn't open the driver door because the other vehicle was up against me.
I climbed over to the passenger side. The frame was bent so as I was pushing on the door a woman was pulling from the outside. We finally got it open and I was able to get out of the car.
After my meeting I was going to work out so I'm in shorts.
The woman in the other vehicle is pinned in and she asks for an ambulance. I'm already embarrassed because of the accident, now more rescue vehicles are coming.
The police came - yes all the guys I used to work with.
Randy (the investigating officer and my neighbor) doesn't even recognize my car
The police chief comes and is talking to Dan - his comment is, "With both of you teaching you could at least afford to buy your wife some long pants."


I am very lucky to not be hurt. I know nothing about tickets or the other driver. I'm assuming she got a ticket for turning in front of oncoming traffic.
For the last two days I have been dealing with my insurance company. I have been very pleased with the prompt service. I have a claim number, an agent, a medical agent (I have severe neck pain) an adjuster (who totalled my car and forwarded the paperwork to the check cutting department) and my local agent. From what everybody is telling me this should be settled by the end of next week.

Today Dan and I went to Adrian to get the Saturn. That will be my mode of transportation for a while. I have no idea what kind of car I want, so we're going to take it slow and I'll be driving in the sardine can for a while.

View from out my window

It's Wednesday and I am home. As I sit there watching the news and sipping my coffee this is the view I see: breathtaking.

I'll post more later filling in the details as to why I am home on a Wednesday.

WOW

A few weeks ago we has severe winds here. As we ate dinner last night, Dan and I both looked out the back window at the tree line. If you look closely you can see how the branches look permanently bent to the east. This is across all the tree lines in the subdivision. Quite impressive.