Long Night at the Hospital

Yesterday was a very long day. I had a wedding yesterday so, my day started about 7:30 in the morning doing all my wedding day prep work, loading up the truck and just getting ready. Add to the fact that it was just plain cold outside, I knew it was going to be interesting day. Little did I know just how interesting it was going to be or how long.

The wedding went well, very pretty bride and the groom was a blast. The groom is a Baptist Minster so there was no music at the reception or any dancing. At most receptions I can grab a quick bite to eat but this reception not the case. I do not like sea food and that is what they had at the reception, so no food for me.

During the day I always stay in touch with Lee to see how things are going. I texted her about 4:30pm and was told that things were not good. The reception was over at 5:30 and when I called home I found out that Katie was very, VERY sick. She had gotten sick at STAR (horse therapy), 2 more times on the way home and once more when they got home. When I arrived our good friend Lisa had gotten some medicine to help stop the nausea and Katie was asleep. We kept an eye on her into the night. About 7:45 she got sick again and we tried to get her medicine down. If she is not able to keep her medicine down she can go into what is called Adrenal Shock. This happened to her on 9/11/01. I was out of town that day and could not get home to help Leeann that day. Katie was put in the hospital that night and monitored. She recovered well then and knew from that day on we had to keep a close eye on her when she got sick.

Well, after she got sick at 7:45 we tried to keep her medicine down again. We keep an eye on her and sure enough a little after 9 she got sick again and we knew we had to get her to the hospital. Leeann called for an ambulance because she had a funny feeling about everything. They got to the house very quickly and the paramedic took a quick look at Katie and picked her up and said we needed to go. I said let me get her jacket, he said "we don't have time for jackets, we need to go NOW!". He scooped her up and off we went to the ambulance. Katie was a little scared, but was not very responsive to what was going on.

We got in the ambulance and the paramedic told the drive "GO, GO, Code 3 to Children's". I am in the back with Katie and Leeann is following us in the car. They stared an IV for Katie, and kept her oxygen. When we pulled up to Children's Hospital they rushed her into the room and I lost count as to how many doctors and nurses were in the room. It was like a scene out of ER, instructions being yelled out, orders being given and everyone working as one team. All my our little girl.

They got her stabilized quickly and she stared to show signs of improving. They got her up to a room about 1am and that is where she was until a couple of hours ago. We are home now and Katie is doing much better.

I can't say enough how much we appreciate the fact that we have a hospital for kids so very close with team of professionals that know just how precious each child is, but also know how scared parents can be when something like this happens to our kids. The nurses in the ER and on the floor where Katie stayed not only took great care of Kate but, also took good care of me and Leeann. When ever I or Leeann needed anything, they were there for us. They were able to get me a bit to eat late last night. They were great to say the least.

Katie is doing well today and being just any other 9 year old.

BIG Day Tomorrow

Everyone knows that I do wedding videos. I have been doing this for more years than I can count, but doing it professionally since 2001. I love the work I do and working the brides has been great. But, to be able to keep doing this fun job, I have to get more brides every year and one of the ways I can do that is with the Premier Bride Wedding Show. The show is tomorrow and I have been working for the past 3 months on rebranding myself and my business. I have redesigned the ad that goes into the Premier Bride magazine, come up with a new sign that will hang in the booth tomorrow and worked very hard on a new demo video that I will hand out. For the past month, I have been thinking about this show at some point every day. This is where I hope to get about 60% of my business from this year.

The thing that has me the most worried is the economy. Let's face it, we all know it is bad. The past week or two there have been story after story in the local news about companies laying off workers, Goody's is closing up, Jewelry Television is laying off more people (I used to work there), Alcoa is letting go of 450 people... The list just keeps going. But, people will still get married and weddings will still be big events. I guess the thing that worries me is will they still spend a bit of money that they may not have?

Leeann has been by my side every step of the way the past couple of months. She has looked at my new demo about 500 times making suggestions along the way, she had a huge say in how the new ad looks but most of all, she keeps me focused on moving forward. I would not have gotten to this point if it had not been for her, I am truly blessed to have her in my life.

17 years ago I was a newly wed not knowing what was in store for us. Not sure of where the road of life would take us, but I am so glad that I had her to go with me on this ride.

Good weekend ending on a bad note

Well, a new year and I plan to keep this more up to date than I have been (yea, we've heard that before haven't we). Anyway, just a bit of catching up over the past couple of months: Katie is doing well, we had a bit of bad spell there for a while, but she is doing better. We do, however, have to make some changes in her school, more about that later as it happens.

Christmas was nice, Leeann's dad was in town and we spent the day with her grandmother. She is not doing very well, seems like she is just living in the moment. She was here at the house all day Christmas and I think she said maybe 5 words. So sad.

We went out with some friends New Years Eve, also known as our 17th anniversary. You know, it is pretty cool to think that I have been married to the same beautiful woman now for 17 years. Every day she amazes me with the things she does. I love her so much.

I have been working at repairing my relationship with my mom. There was a long stretch there where we didn't have any communication. Things are much better now. In fact, we spent the weekend with her and helped my wonderful aunt install her new computer. She will do well with it, it is just going to take some time for her to get adjusted to it.

Anyway, we had a great time this weekend, Katie got to spend some good time with my mom (GramSue as she named her) and got to play with her cousins Blake and Hunter. We went to a place called "Fun Expedition", it's kinda like a Chuck E. Cheese only bigger and with more to do. We played LazerTag, did some bumper cars, and played lots of video games. Katie loved the whole weekend. I can't wait for them to come back down to our place in a couple of weeks. I know Katie is looking forward to showing Blake and Hunter her room.

Now, for the bad note. I have a wedding show next Sunday. This is the biggest show of the year, I got 75% of my business from the show last year. I have been working hard to do some re-branding, changing the web site, the look of the ad and even a new banner. But most of all, I have been working on a new demo video. If you don't know, the demo video is what i show to brides so that they can see my work and know what I can do for them. Anyway, I finally got it finished, it looks great and I really hope it brings in more business this year. Anyway, I went out to my office to burn the demo copy and every-time I try to burn the disk, the software crashes. I did it like 12 or 13 times with the same result. Well, I did some research and it looks like I am not the only one with this problem. Everyone else using the same program I am using has the same problem. The only way to fix it is to upgrade the whole suite to the new version. This means I have to update my editing program, graphics program, everything and that is going to be about $1200. I have been up till 1am trying to fix it. I have no choice, there is no way the the software company is going to release a fix in the next couple of days, but I have to get the update, install it and change all my settings. There goes my Sunday.

Anyway, I had a great weekend, but now, I have a lot of work to get things fixed. Wish me luck.