Tuesday, May 17, 2011
It's been awhile
What an amazing couple of weeks we've had – I know that I should've been updating this blog, but things have been pretty hectic and my wife has done a great job keeping folks updated on Gracie's caringbridge site (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/graciedelaney). On Saturday, May 7th, friends and family threw an unbelievable benefit for Gracie – Hundreds of people visited throughout the day and night. There were so many wonderful aspects to this event – There was something for everybody -- young and old – It was so nice to see many old friends and family, new friends, and even many that we didn't even know – All brought together to support our little girl - most of these people have not yet even been able to meet her yet due to the fact that we've had to keep her away from others to avoid infection as she got stronger in preparation for our trip to Boston. We were completely blown away by the whole thing, are beyond thankful, and promise to pay it forward. Being reminded of our giant network of support just days before our trip has helped us so much in this scary time.
Sunday and Monday were spent preparing for our trip and spending some quality time with Lylli – We woke up very early Tuesday morning and completely filled our car with all of the things we needed to drag with us to Boston – Besides getting all of the items checked and onto the plane – the experience wasn't too bad – we were happy to have the oxygen condenser with us because about 15 minutes into the flight, Gracie's O2 saturations (sats) dropped into the mid 60's, but with a tiny bump of oxygen, she was right where she needed to be. She fussed a few times, but with the help of the pacifier and some pats on the back, she was relatively easy to keep content. Once there, we managed to round up all of our gear – A friend of mine knew a guy that knew a guy and arranged to have a beautiful Cadillac Escalade there to pick us up and bring us to the place we were staying. After settling into our new home away from home for a bit, we put Gracie in the stroller and walked around in an attempt to explore the area. We found a Trader Joe's down the road and picked up a couple things for breakfast the next morning and some of those dark chocolate caramels that they sell there that are without out a doubt sold under the table to Trader Joe's by the devil himself – Man are they good!!!!! What a beautiful place – Boston Children's is affiliated with Harvard medical school – The whole area is beautiful. We are staying in a beautiful old home in an area similar to the large old homes surrounding the lakes in the uptown Minneapolis area. We are staying at the Yawkey Family Inn – an old Victorian mansion, turned frat house, turned reasonably priced housing for families with sick children – it is a beautiful less than mile walk from the hospital. We were definitely spoiled at the RMH in Minneapolis, but this place is also very nice. I'll stop there for now and continue my recap in a later blog... Stay Tuned!!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Gracie's Benefit Flyer
This has turned into a huge event -- we are so humbled by our network of support going into our trip to Boston - we were pretty uncomfortable with the idea at first but after several convincing conversations have agreed to go along with it -- Everyday we hear about something new - it sounds like its going to be Amazing!!
Monday, May 2, 2011
hmm - let me check in the back to see if we have anything in your size
Our photographer says it’s a rare occasion that she gets to take a second set of pictures of the families that she took pictures of through the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep foundation. Next weekend is the big day of our family photo shoot – this time we won’t be stuck in the corner of Gracie’s NICU room trying to look happy while our newborn daughter is on the ventilator. Hopefully – the weather will cooperate and we’ll be able to be outside somewhere. Because of our upcoming photo session, I was told that I needed to go to the store and find myself a shirt to wear in our family photos. I think, “nothing too pimpish” were my wife’s exact words. Now those that know me know that I’m definitely no mack daddy and my existing body has seriously affected my pride when it comes to my appearance. I think dressing grubby is a defense mechanism – because when I try to look my best, I am usually very disappointed these days. So I went to the Men’s Warehouse – thinking that I’d pick-up a size 20 neck 36/37 dress shirt in a light color to go with the one pair of jeans that fit me. As usually happens in stores like that, I was surrounded by the overdressed sharks who wouldn’t leave me alone – they really should have a class for these guys that teaches them how to read their customers – I would most likely spend more money if these guys didn’t bug me the whole time – because of this I make a point to get in and out as fast as I can instead so these leaches will just leave me the heck alone (Don’t even get me started about car dealerships or Slumberland). Anyway – the guy helping me convinced me that the shirts I was looking at were to be worn only with a tie (despite the fact that I wore one sans tie in our last photo) and steered me in the more casual button up shirts – I did see a few shirts that I liked – I’ve got this uncomfortable prednisone bloat going on (which makes it even worse than my normal uncomfortable fat guy bloat) – the salesman assured me this XXL shirt ran big and it would fit me great, but I figured I better try it on to be safe. I grabbed the same shirt in a couple different color/patterns and went into the dressing room – tried it on and looked like 10 lbs of you know what in a 5 lb bag – that’s right – the shirt he assured me would be roomy enough for me fit me like a glove – unfortunately it was a doctors glove. I was so absolutely mortified that I walked out of the dressing room and told him I’ll take this one -- bought one of them anyway and now it sits in the back of my closet – I guess we’ll call it the first of my goal shirts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)