Christmas is here

I have successfully let an entire month go by without updating my blog. I can always blame it on being busy, but it comes down to laziness. So here I am attempting to atone my my misdeeds and start jotting a few memories down before I forget them.

Sometimes I feel like Christmas is par with this video--crazy! This year I'm tying to do less and feel more Christmas cheer. So far it's working.

Richard G. Scott

Elder Richard G. Scott came to speak in my parents Ward today. My dad is the bishop of the Salt Lake 9th Ward and Elder Scott was my dad's mission president in Argentina. He spoke on the Atonement and bore a powerful testimony of Christ.

Sam and Athena

Athena came for a visit this weekend. She is a Standard Poodle belonging to my brother Rob. Sam loves it when Athena comes for a visit. On Friday morning as I was leaving for work, they decided it was time to play so I had to throw them outside so they would not wake up the rest of the house.

Gavin Alexander Fletcher

Matt's new baby was born on 10/19/07. I thought it was extremely funny to get an email on the 19th that he was born at 4 something pm and it was only 11am when I was reading the email. It was a twilight zone moment--he was born in the future!

Caryn

I finally downloaded all the pictures from Caryn's memorial to my computer so I can email them out. I miss Caryn. At the strangest times I will feel an overwhelming sadness and cry. It's not as if I am trying to think of Caryn, but some odd moment will spark a memory and the tears will start to leak. I wonder if there is a time frame known for when the sharp pain of missing turns into a dull ache?

When Geoff and I were engaged and the Fletcher crew descended on California for the wedding, Caryn and I went for a walk alone. She ask me why God would let something so bad happen to her. The only answer I had for her was free agency. People could choose to do things even if they hurt other people. It sounded like a pretty lame reason at the time. Caryn always lived her life hurting no one even though she could have chosen differently.

Here are a few picture I think she would have enjoyed.

Iain's Swim Meet 10/18-10/20

Iain had a swim meet this weekend. His 1st event was the 500 freestyle which is 20 lengths of the pool. Geoff told him if he made a state qualifying time he would not have to swim it again until the state swim meet. Iain swam it in 6:36.70 and state qualifying time is 6:36.49. He missed if by 21 onehundreths of a second. He was sad he missed the time, but he did drop almost a minute off his time from the previous time he swam it so he was happy about that. In all the events he swam he dropped time.

He got a new swim suit a few weeks ago and he named it Blue Lightening!

I made Iain false start by taking this picture. I forgot about the flash on the camera and how the start uses a beep and a flash. I took the picture and he fell in. He was very upset with me after the race. I told him I would only take pictures of him from the oter end of the pool.

The video is of him doing 50 fly.

We went to the San Diego zoo in June with Jackson. In the Children's zoo they were training an Ocelot. We were sitting in the front row of the training area. Jake took this amazing picture of the Ocelot. It looks like something out of National Geographic to me. We had a blast at the Zoo.

Before and after pictures

All right I am trying this again. Here are before and after pictures of my cousin Jasine and me.







The nurse said we were grimiacing--not smiling!

The 1st picture was taken Monday 9/3/07 the night before the surgery. The next picture was taken when I was being released. The nurse who took the photo said we were grimacing, not smiling. We told her that was as good as it got!

Post Surgery

Tomorrow will be 1 week post Nephrectomy and I thought I would jot a few thoughts down. It's been tougher than I imagined. I thought I could handle pain, I had 2 over 9 lb boys without any pain medicine and figured this would be similar. Nope--way different. With labor it was intense pain with short breaks in between. With surgery it is a very manageable dull pain that never lets up. It is the accumulation of pain that is mentally taxing. I am ready for it to be done just as I was ready for the boys to be born, but there is no end. The only end to this is time.

I have been celebrating the small things. It now only takes me about 2 minutes to get out of bed whereas just a few days post surgery it was taking up to 10. I am also home (Uncle Ray's house) from the hospital. I am getting lots of sleep and feeling semi-normal.

We had to be at the hospital at 6:30am on Tuesday 9/4. When we arrived they put us in a room and took our vitals as well as asked lots of questions. Around 7:15am thay came to get me and I was able to throw my arms around Jasine one last time before they seperated us for surgery. I got to ride on a hospital bed with a warm blanket wrapped around me to the 2nd floor pre-opp room.

In the pre-opp room I had an IV inserted in my right wrist and was again asked many questions. One of the frequent questions was "So what are we doing to you today?" When the 4th person asked me this I finally said "You guys are scareing me. I should hope by now you know what surgery I will be having and not have to ask me about it." The nurse calmly explained they were all very well aware what surgery I was having they only wanted to make sure I knew. I did.

The Anesthesiologist came over to talk to me and said he was going to give me some stuff that might make me sleepy. At the time I was sitting up on the bed hugging my knees to my chest and having a good chat with the person in the bed next to me. They gave me the drug and started to move my bed out of the pre-opp room and into the hallway. The hallway is as far as my memory goes. I remember thinking I do feel tired and I better lie down. The next thing I remember is somone shaking me and saying "Wake up, it's 1:30pm. You're done" 6 hours of my life are blank; a strange feeling.

My next awareness after being told to wake up was my mouth being very dry. I felt as if I had been stuck in a desert for 1 week with no water. I slowly became aware of my surroundings and asked where I was. I got "Where do you think you are?" In the snottiest post-opp voice I could muster which sounded more like an aged smoker "Recovery room, UC Davis Medical Center." I was done with stupid questions.

The Beginning

This is the very first Fletcher Blog. Stephanie Monson showed me how to set it up. I will add pictures and more later!