"...a new resolution: to write every day. We'll see how long it lasts."

Thursday, Jan. 23, 1992

     A new notebook! And a new resolution: to write every day. We'll see how long it lasts.

     This afternoon we went to Leigh Memorial Hosp. to see Mark Pugh. He had surgery yesterday to extend his lower jaw. His mouth will be wired shut about 2-3 weeks & he'll be on a liquid diet & unable to talk all that time. I took him some old copies of Texas Highways magazines that were still laying around. Some I haven't even read yet, even though they were 2-3 years old. But I figured if I haven't read them by now I never would.

     I don't have the time to read like I used to. I've read more while Guy's been home but I'm so far behind in y magazines I don't know when I'll be able to catch up. I'm going to let my subscription to McCall's expire this time. 

     I finally made some cookies tonight. Guy's been wanting me to make some since xmas. He ended up helping with them - he was so anxious to get some. I don't know how many he ate. I had two.

     Ez. is finally starting to try chewing on things. But instead of swallowing what she bites off she spits it out. And she still spits out any baby food that has any chunks in it. We've also tried feeding her real slices of carrots & bananas. She just likes to smush them up. She's also into swinging her arms around, banging on the table, and swiping things off the table. We give her a spoon sometimes just so she can get used to it. It usually ends up on the floor though. We bought a vinyl tablecloth to put under her chair. It goes from the wall to about halfway under the table and about a foot out from each side of it. I thought it would be easy to clean up til we discovered the Dust Buster doesn't work any more. Now I have to get down & wipe everything up.

     We finally got the xmas decorations down yesterday. The living room looks spacier now. I put away all the bunnies that were sitting on the top of the bookcase then put my plants up there. They should get enough sunlight there & they'll be out of Ez.'s way. I'll have to keep the watering can under the kitchen sink. That's something else we'll have to do soon - put latches on all the cabinets. She's still not crawling but when she's in her walker she tries to open the ones that have handles on them. A couple of times this week she's taken a step or two forward in her walker. She still goes mostly backwards & sideways though. She may turn out to be one of those babies that never crawl & just start pulling up & walking.

     I should write about the Pugh's going-away party. It was at the Cuthrell's last Friday. We made lasagna & since ours was one of the last ones put out, we had lots left. After eating, they had a roast. I made up a list - "12 Things I Never Saw a Preacher Do...Until I met Mark Pugh." Some things were funnier than others. I'll copy it down later. After that I was going to do a Razorback yell. I'd put on my Razorback sweatshirt. I tried to talk Guy into it beforehand but he said maybe so I figured he was going to give me a hard time til then and then do it. But when I was ready to do that part he just sat there. I said "you're going to make me do this by myself aren't you?" & he said yes. Then other people started saying oh, come on Guy & everyone started yelling for him to & his face turned red but he finally got up there & did it with me. Everyone got a big kick out of that. A few people said something about it at church Sun. about they never would've expected such a thing of me cause I'm so quiet. I was so embarrassed when we were doing it but after it was over I was glad we did. I didn't admit that to anyone but Guy.

     Kathy Dotson came over & stayed with Elizabeth. Philip came with her. She wouldn't let us pay her though. We'd told her we'd be back by 10:30 & we were a little late. I don't know what time it ended cause they were still going when we left. We'd asked Barb if she could keep her but she didn't want to come over here. I thought Ez. would probably do better if she could go to sleep in her own bed instead of at someone else's house & I guess it worked cause Kathy said she didn't have any trouble at all. I do wish we had a regular babysitter. I sure do miss Deanna.

"Now we have to make it through almost 3 yrs. of sea duty."

Wed., Jan. 22, 1992

     Things have been going pretty well lately. Ez. started sleeping better at night. She hasn't taken any naps longer than about an hour except for a 2-hr. one this past Mon.

     It was kind of nice having Guy go back to work last week but it's nice to have him home again. So he's finally through with his shore leave. In a way it was a long 3 yrs. cause he had to put in so much overtime and it wasn't the easy-going atmosphere like it was at his last shore duty. Now we have to make it through almost 3 yrs. of sea duty. I sure don't look forward to his first cruise. I told him one day when he got home from work that I might like having him work every other week. We're trying to keep Ez. on a better schedule while he's off this time.

     He took the chiefs test again the day before he left SIMA. He said this was the hardest one ever. He always says that but he said everyone else was saying that this time. This'll be his last time to take the test. He got his best evils. ever this time - straight 4.0's and he was ranked this time where he never has been before. I sure hope he makes it this time.

     I don't think I wrote about New Year's Eve. Mark & Linda Pugh invited us over for the party they had for the Singles. It was pretty fun & Ez. did pretty good. She was awake til about 10:30. She slept through all the noise at midnight - the teens came over from their party at the building with lots of noisemakers. She woke up when we put her in the car but I sat in the back & gave her a bottle on the way home. She didn't wake up when we got home but she didn't sleep late the next morning.

     She just turned 9 mos. Sunday. I still can't believe how fast she's growing. We got the video camera out Mon. to make some tape of her & the camera fell off the tripod. Guy was so upset. He called Sears to see if that was covered under the maintenance agreement. They said it wasn't, so then he was even more upset. Tues. he took it over to the service center but didn't tell them it fell. They fixed it for free. It was recording the sound but not pictures. It's fine now. Then he took the tripod to the store to get a refund. They were going to just exchange it because they discovered a crack in the piece where the camera fits on. When she went to get another one the girl found they were all cracked. So he paid the extra money to get the $100 model. They did let him have 10% off because I'd bought the first one when they had a special sale day where everything in the store was 10% off. This one has thicker legs & it looks sturdier - it goes up higher too. We just taped a little bit to be sure it worked. I want to just run the tape showing Ez. playing in the floor. It's hard to get her to act natural in front of the camera sometimes, she just wants to look at it.

     She's started saying dada this week but not necessarily to Guy. Nothing that sounds like mama yet.

     Well, time to start a new notebook. I bought one before our trip, thinking I'd need it while we were gone. If I was able to write as much as I wanted I'd go through notebooks a lot faster.

January 17, 1992

January 19, 1992

"...he said to just let him live his life."

Sat., January 4, 1992

     I guess we had a good first Christmas with Elizabeth. It wasn't exactly like I'd pictured it. I figured she'd be crawling by now and wanting to get into the tree & the presents. Whenever we'd first turn the tree lights on, she'd watch them blink for a couple of minutes then look for something else to do. When it came to opening packages xmas morning, she helped pull the bows off once I'd start them. I think she liked all the things Santa brought. We may have gone a little overboard but not too much. I intend to start a word processor disk to list all her xmas & birthday presents so she can remember or look back on it when she grows up. Sometimes I think back to certain things I got for xmas and wish I could remember when it was.

     Anyway, we sat her down in the middle of things and showed her her new toys & things one at a time. She seemed to get excited about each new thing. And we got it all on video tape! I'm so glad we got that camera, even if it's taking forever to pay for it. One of Guy's xmas presents was a tripod so we could all be in the picture together.

     That afternoon we went over to Mike & Carole's. There was a girl there that Carole works with, her daughter, (her husband's at sea), and a friend of hers (male). We took Chief with us. He did ok. Better there than he did in the car. We laid half of the back seat down. I had to finally hold his leash &/or collar to get him to be still and even then he wasn't still and was constantly whining. I don't know how but he's got to learn to behave in the car, especially now that Elizabeth is back there.

     In case I haven't mentioned it, I took Ez. in for a weight check the week after our trip. She was 19 & 1/2 lbs. & the nurse said that was close enough to turn her car seat forward. We have it in the middle of the back seat (except when Chief went along). One of us still has to sit back there with her sometimes when she gets fussy & won't go to sleep without a bottle. Sometimes we even have to stop on the side of the road for me to move from front to back. Once I even switched at a stop light. Hopefully she'll get used to being in the back seat alone soon.

     Back to xmas day. We went over about 1:30 or 2:00 & stayed til 7-8? (I can't remember now.) Carole fixed Cornish hens & they were good. I gave what I couldn't eat of mine to Guy. She also made yeast rolls. I made a pecan pie & black-eyed peas. She made everything else. It was a good dinner. We ate around 5. After supper we played a new game - Shanghai rummy. It was a bit hard but fun. It reminded me a little of Yahtzee. There were 13 hands. You got 11 cards each time. We used two & eventually three decks of cards. Each hand you had to get different things. I think the first hand was two sets of three. The next hand was a set of 3 & a run of 4. It got progressively harder. One hand required a run of 10 plus something else. If you weren't the one to go out, you counted the points left in your hand to go against you. The player with the fewest points at the end was the winner. I was at the opposite end.

     Guy & I had to take turns with Ez. while we were playing. She slept some while we were there but not much. We tried to feed her supper while we were there (she'd finally eaten some bananas at lunch) but she wouldn't take any solids.

     Her appetite finally came back last Sun. I think. She finished her Amoxicillin on New Year's Eve. We still gave her the Proventil for another day cause it sounded a little rumbling in her chest. Both her head & chest seem to be clear now - knock on wood. She'll need her 9-mo. shots soon so she needs to be well for that.

     For our anniversary this year we went to a different place, one Gayle Hardison recommended. Steinhilber's. It's down past where Mike & Carole live (they kept Ez.) on the water but we didn't see a view. Gayle said to ask for a table downstairs & that's what we got. It was a little chilly but I didn't have long sleeves on. (I wore the dress I'd made for our pictures.) But the food was terrific. We got their specialty - fried shrimp. It was delicious. But they didn't do anything special for our ann. That's why we stopped going to Tandom's - because they quit doing anything extra for our ann. Maybe we can find something else next year.

     Guy gave me a cassette case & three cassettes for our ann. He told me ahead of time that he didn't get me anything romantic. I got him the watch he'd asked for for xmas. I've decided not to get him any really expensive one any more cause he wears them our too fast.

     After we ate we drove around looking at xmas lights before going to get Ez. Carole had just gotten her to sleep and when we rang the doorbell Katie (the dog) started barking & woke her up. She was screaming by the time we got in but she was ok by the time I got her down stairs to see her Daddy.

     I forgot to mention Luana Carter kept Ez. xmas eve aft. while we went to see Star Trek VI. It was pretty good but I don't think it's my favorite. We went to the theater over by the base. It was nice. Ez. did good at Luana's.

     Guy's arm is doing better. He had a smaller cast put on then when they took the staples out they put on a removable splint. He was only supposed to take it off to take showers and he was real good about leaving it on. Yesterday morning they removed it for good. He still has one week convalescent leave. He's not supposed to do any heavy lifting for another month. He'll be on the ship by then. There's a couple of exercises they told him to do but I haven't seen him doing them much yet. I'm not going to nag him about it though. We had a "discussion" one night. He said I was wanting him to do more around the house & then when he tried to do anything, I'd tell him he'd hurt his arm. I asked what he wanted me to do & he said to just let him live his life. So that's what I've been trying to do the past few days. He says he's not mad at me & I'm not mad at him, but things just seem different any more. I thought once we finally had the baby we wanted for so long that everything would be wonderful. But sometimes it's like we're further apart than ever. It's like we're both giving everything we've got to Elizabeth and there's nothing left to give to each other. He said something about maybe we're just around each other too much since he's been on leave. He may be right about that. I've tried to keep a regular schedule but it's really been hard. Ez. isn't taking very good naps any more & since she's been sick she doesn't sleep as well at night any more. We try to take turns getting up with her & sleeping in but seems like I'm always tired and/or getting headaches. We've started staying up late and I just can't do that & get up with Ez. in the mornings. It's going to be rough at first when Guy goes back to work. Once he goes back to work he's only got a week before he leaves there. He's going to take a couple of weeks off before reporting to the ship. There's a guy from church who's on the Opportune & he said they'll be at Key West the whole month of Feb. So he'll have to go to work at the transit personnel something-or-other til the ship gets back. They're supposed to go in the yards for 3 mos. in April but they don't know where yet. Don't know when their first big cruise is but I already dread it. It's going to be so hard taking care of Ez. & Chief by myself.

"I'm worried that this means she has CF."

Friday, Dec. 27, 1991

     Since that night I was writing about things are getting better I guess. The next night after that (or the next) I was getting ready to take my shower while Guy was getting Ez. ready for bed. I heard a big noise from the other bathroom & asked if everything was ok. He didn't say anything so I figured it was ok or he didn't hear me. Then a couple of seconds later Ez. started screaming. I ran over there as fast as I could. He was bringing her out & said she was ok. He'd had her on his lap to brush her teeth and she'd leaned back & he dropped the toothpaste to catch her but it scared her. He acted like he didn't want me to hold her but when she's crying & screaming like that it just makes me feel like I have to hold her. He finally let me when I insisted. (Later he said he thought since he was the one that scared her he should be the one to comfort her and that he hoped she wasn't still scared of him or mad at him the next day. The next day he said he was glad it seemed like she didn't remember.) He asked me if he was scaring me & I said yes because I thought the medicine was affecting his reflexes as well as his thinking. That made him mad for awhile. At first he said he wouldn't even try to hold her & I told him he didn't have to be that extreme, that he just needed to take time to think & pay more attention to things when he was using the pain pills. He decided that he would only take the pills at night unless it got really bad during the day. Nothing else has happened like that since then. He stopped taking the pills all together about a week after the surgery.

     He went back for a checkup Mon., 12/23. They took out the staples, not stitches, all 22 of them! They put on a removable splint so now he's able to take showers. And I get to see the scar when I help him wrap his arm back up every day. It's 5" long, a lot longer than we'd expected. Guess we'll have to wait & see how much it fades. He doesn't have to go back til a week from today.

     Meanwhile, my cold is better. I finished the Cipro yesterday (actually I have enough for 2 more weeks). Elizabeth didn't seem to be getting any better so we took her to the dr. last Friday, 12/20. We were lucky to get to see Dr. Karp again. She checked her ears and had to clean out some wax but said they were ok. She said her lungs were clear but that she had a lot of green drainage down her throat. She took a specimen of her runny nose (which was & still is clear) and the lab said she had a sinus infection. She gave her amoxicillin (antibiotic) and Proventil (one of the things I use in my nebulizer) to keep her bronchial tubes open. It didn't seem like she was getting any better to me so I called & talked to a nurse Mon 12/23. She said if she's not getting any worse she wouldn't want us to bring her in & risk her getting something worse from the sick kids there. I also asked her about Ez. not taking any solid food. She was just the opposite at first - not wanting bottles & Dr. Karp said it was because the drainage made things taste bad. The nurse said not to worry unless it lasted more than a few days. I asked if that would make her stools loose & she said it would and that so would the amoxicillin. If she gets diarrhea we're supposed to give her Imodium AD.

     I didn't think to ask the nurse but had been wondering if Ez. needed a decongestant cause her nose was still runny. I mentioned that to Carole & she said it's ok to give her Dimetapp too so we started that Wed. night & her nose is drying up some. She still has a cough so there must still be drainage. If she's not well by the time the medicine's gone I guess we'll have to go back to the dr. I'm worried that this means she has CF. Guy said if she had it she'd have shown signs of it before now. I said not necessarily because this is her first winter & cold season to go thru. I certainly hope she doesn't have it.

     I'll have to write later about xmas & our 11th anniversary.

"I looked out just in time to see her falling off the couch!"

December 19, 1991

     Things sure have been hectic since Guy's surgery a week ago today. It went ok. It wasn't what they thought. The dr. said it was a new muscle that started growing around the nerve. He said it's rare, implying that it's not a freak thing that's never happened before. Guy's arm was all wrapped up, the hard cast part was only on the back of his arm but it was so big he couldn't get his shirt on over it.

     The surgery lasted about 50 minutes. He was awake when they brought him out but he was a little spacey. They took him to a bed on the ward on the same floor, way down at the far end. I walked back & forth & up & down stairs so many times my legs were sore the next day. I went to see Dr. Lazarus while Guy went back to sleep. She had me get an X-ray to be sure I didn't have pneumonia. (I didn't.) Then she gave me a prescription for Cipro. I think it finally started taking effect yesterday. Just as Elizabeth came down with it. Her nose got stuffy yesterday & she started coughing last night. We started giving her the Triaminic Nite Light. We also gave her Tylenol cause she had a little fever - 99.7 underarm. She didn't sleep very well last night so I didn't either. Guy took care of her this morning & let me sleep late - til after 10:00. She acted like she felt better this aft. but then worse again this eve. I called to see if we should bring her to the dr. & the nurse said to try using a humidifier and elevate the head of her bead. We took the wheels off the opposite end to make it lower. Hopefully she'll sleep better tonight. (We did start the humidifier too)

     Back to Guy's surgery. They gave him Tylenol with codeine for the pain. They knocked him out a little but not like it did me when I took it. The first couple of nights & days were rough cause I felt so lousy but Guy did help some. I tried to wash my hands before touching Ez. every time but that was practically impossible. 

     We did manage to get to church Sun. morning. I took the seam out of the sleeve on one of Guy's shirts so he could get it on over the cast. I had to drive. Mon. we had to get up early to take him over for a checkup at PNH at 7:30. He gave Ez. a bottle in the car and I fed her while we were waiting. They changed his cast to a smaller one so he can get his clothes on ok now. The dr. said he can drive now so he went out that aft. & went xmas shopping.

     I think he was trying to do too much at first. I told him he didn't have to prove that he was ok or anything. Sun. night he was watching Ez. in the living room while I was washing dishes. I looked out just in time to see her falling off the couch! He had left her there when he got up to let Chief out. We couldn't find any bumps or bruises on her but she was really screaming & I was crying & holding on to her. Guy said he was sorry & he didn't think she'd roll off before he got back over there. I told him I thought the medicine was affecting his thinking. 

"They think it's scar tissue from a damaged nerve."

December 12, 1991

     I'm at Portsmouth Naval Hospital waiting on Guy while he's having surgery. I don't know if I've mentioned the knot in his arm before. It's been bothering him for over a year and they finally decided to do something about it. They think it's scar tissue from a damaged nerve. He has no idea how or when he could have damaged a nerve. They are going to test it for cancer though. They were supposed to do this yesterday but he got bumped. There's some stupid rule in anesthesiology that they can only do five blocks a day (they're only doing a block on his arm, plus giving him something to relax him so he's out of it); he was #5 but the lady who was #4 had to have hers done twice and her second one counted as #5. They checked him into the hops. but gave him special liberty to go home overnight.

     Thank goodness Dianna could keep Ez. again. Both days Guy had to be here at 6:00. He brought the car, Dianna came & picked me & Ez. up, dropped me off at the hospital & took her home for the day. It was almost 1:00 when they told us they couldn't do the surgery. It was after 3:00 before we finally got to leave. Guy was so upset. So was I. I'm just glad they let him come home last night cause we weren't prepared for him to spend the night. The dr. we talked to yesterday isn't the one doing the surgery but he was here & told me they had taken him down to anes. for the block about 8:00. He went in to see how it was going and said they'd just made the incision. That was 10:15 & it's now 10:33. He said it should be over about 11:00.

     Meanwhile, I now have a cold. My sinuses were really draining Tues. when I saw Dr. Lazarus. Yesterday aft. I started getting a tickle in my throat. Last night I was wheezing a little & woke up with one side of my sinuses clogged up. I'm not wheezing though but my throat hurts, I'm coughing a lot and having to blow my nose a lot. I can't afford to be sick now that I have to take care of Guy & Ez. both. I've been using Hall's & brought some juice to drink but my sinuses are hurting. Maybe I'll run up & see if Dr. Lazarus wants to give me a prescription for any antibiotics, after I know Guy's ok.

     Guess I can tell about the rest of our trip. I came down with a head cold on the way to LA. I managed to keep it from getting bad but not before Elizabeth got it from me. Thank goodness we kept it from getting too bad with her - we'd taken all her medicine with us. We used Pediacare Nite Light first because she had a cough. When the cough stopped we switched to Dimetapp. I think it took a little over a week to clear her nose up but she was ok by the time we got home.

     The hardest part of the trip was getting there & back. The first night on the way there she let us know by screaming that she'd had enough. We stopped for the night just the other side of Atlanta. She did a little better on the way back - no screaming. But going from Louisiana to McCrory was hard because she was getting sick but we didn't realize that at the time. There was one night in McCrory that she hardly slept at all & I was afraid we'd have to cancel our plans to go to Searcy the next day. But she seemed to be doing better the next day so we went. We didn't go to see Miss Young. Ruth Burt's husband had died overnight & she was with her. (She'd worked in the office next to mine.) We saw Nancy Johnson but Alice Ann Kellar & Latina Dykes weren't there. We went by College Church to see Steve Edelhuber. I'd sent them a post card so they'd know we'd be in town then but they hadn't gotten it. We had to go by someone's house to see Lisa cause she was working there (cleaning house). 

November 28, 1991

November 30, 1991

November 1991

December 1, 1991

December 6, 1991

"I've wondered before what it would be like if Elizabeth turned out to be a genius."

Friday, Nov. 22, 1991

     Yesterday Shirley kept Elizabeth while we went to the movies. We went to see Little Man Tate. It was pretty good. I've wondered before what it would be like if Elizabeth turned out to be a genius. Hopefully she'd have friends; the little boy in the movie didn't.

     Ez. did just fine with Shirley. She ate a good lunch and fell asleep on Shirley's shoulder while she was talking with her sister, who came by for lunch.

     We looked around the mall some and each had a cookie after the movie. There was a store there called Colbyeo Woodcrafts. They had lots of bunnies painted on things. I fell in love with the toy boxes. They were very lightly stained blue and different ones had bunnies & teddies & combinations of them with roses on the borders. They were adorable. The one I liked most was also a bench and there were heart shapes cut into the back & end slats. I wanted it so bad but as Guy pointed out, there's no way we could get it back to VA. Plus, it cost $150.00! Sure makes me wish I was rich. Maybe I could find something like that in VA later. Barb was telling me about the new Crafter's Mall that opened at the far end of Baxter Rd. from us. She said it's like a permanent craft show where all different kinds of craftspeople have their own individual booths. She said she spent 2 hrs. going thru the whole thing. Sounds neat.

     Kenny & Lori came over for supper last night and visited for an hour or so. Mary Lee wasn't with them. Elizabeth did really good with everyone, even though she didn't get her early evening nap.

     We'd sent a copy of the video tape to Randy but they don't have a VCR. We put it in the camera to see how it looked & it played it at a different speed - fast - so we won't be able to hook the camera up to their TV.

"Elizabeth did fairly well on the trip."

Thursday, Nov. 21, 1991

     We got to W. Monroe at Randy's house at 3:33 yesterday afternoon. Elizabeth did fairly well on the trip. The only time she got really fussy was Tues. night just before we stopped for the night. She decided she'd had enough & was practically screaming for about the last 10-15 minutes. We wanted to get on past Atlanta though so we kept going and stopped in Bremen. She slept good but it took a long time to get her to sleep. She woke up once with a nightmare but Guy only had to walk her for a little bit. Last night it took her awhile to go to sleep too & Guy finally gave her more juice. I wish she wouldn't get back into that habit but I kind of expected it on the trip. I just don't want her to have problems with her teeth. We're leaving her here with Shirley this aft. to go to a movie!

     I didn't get much more sewing done. I finished her white shirt except for the buttons. I did those at the motel and then discovered that I put all the front ones on backwards. I did the ones on the cuffs right. I didn't feel like redoing them all then so who knows when I'll fix them.

     Our new car did great on the trip - 38.1 MPG on the last tank. I think on trips the Cavalier never got more than 26. There's more room inside but it was still stuffed with all the things we had to bring. I'd wanted to bring her walker & stroller but there wasn't room for them.