Doctor Josh: The story of how my husband cured Matt's heart attack / stroke

I dearly, dearly love my brother-in-law, Matt. This is one of my favorite stories about him:

Matt lived with us for a couple of months when we lived in Montana. One night, Josh and I were already asleep when Matt frantically knocked on our door, whisper-shouting, "Guys! Wake up!"

Waking out of a semi-deep sleep, I immediately thought the house was on fire or something (why else would he wake us up in the middle of the night?). I jumped out of bed, jerked open the door, and found Matt bent over, his one arm dangling limply at his side.

"I can't move my left arm and it feels really tingly." (I don't remember his exact words, but it was something like this.) I think he also mentioned something about his heart not feeling right.

I very helpfully asked, "What's wrong with it?"

He didn't know, but was afraid something was wrong with his heart or something. I kept asking him what he wanted us to do, if he needed to go to the doctor, or if we needed to call an ambulance.

I was so panicked, my legs were shaking and I felt sick, so I went and sat down on the edge of the bed while Josh finally got up to go see if he could help Matt. Matt repeated what was wrong. Josh looked at him for a moment.

"Is your arm asleep?" he asked.

Matt was quiet for several long seconds. Then, "Yeah, I think that's what it is."

Itchy Feet, Part Two: The Dark Side

I love going to new places. I really do. But there are downsides to moving every few years. Obviously there are always the inconveniences of moving - finding a new place, finding a new job, switching all of your information, closing accounts, opening accounts, etc. But there are some deeper issues as well:

1. Financial - Moving costs a lot. Especially the moves we make, which tend to be across the country.

2. Friends - I am constantly having to make new ones. And I don't make friends easily. It takes me a while to even feel comfortable enough with people just to hang out with them. It takes even longer to find anyone that I truly love as a friend. Since high school ten years ago, I've had two. And I left both of them around a year after we really started being good friends.

3. Jobs - While sometimes we move somewhere in order to get new jobs, I feel like I am always starting at the bottom, again. You can't build up a strong record at your job when you keep leaving it after just a few years.

4. Church - I hate looking for a church. You have to go and meet new people, all who really try to be friendly and open, and who should. But refer to my number 2. Also, finding a church where you can really feel comfortable gets harder and harder the more Bible and theology classes  your husband has had.

5. Starting Over - This kind of applies to all areas. While it can be a good thing in some ways, it is also really hard. You have to prove yourself over and over again. You have to show people who you are. You have to be vulnerable with  new acquaintances. It's a hard position to be in so frequently.

So there you have it. Before you decide to start hopping around the country, take a minute to decide if it is really worth it.

Sleepwalkers

I have lived with four different people who sleepwalked. All of my siblings sleepwalked, and my husband did once, a long time ago.

My sister, Gina, was the first one. She was about nine when she had her adventure. She walked into my parents' bedroom, started tossing books around and declared that she was going to build a computer before turning around and going back to bed.

My brother, Jordan, was next. He walked right up to my bed, said something about dogs barking, and turned around. I didn't quite hear what he said, so I called him. He turned around and walked back to my bed. He repeated his line about the dogs then went back to his room. I think he attempted to sleepwalk several other times, but Jordan slept on the top bunk and most of his attempts at sleepwalking just ended with him falling out of bed. Several times we were all woken up by a yell, then a sort of splat as he hit the tile floor. Then moaning.

My little brother, Ben, sleepwalked a LOT. Most of it he did after I had left home, but I saw him a couple of times when I went home right before my wedding. He would come downstairs and sit down with us, even talk. Jordan would yell at him to go back to bed, and he would stand up and go back. The first time I told Jordan to quit yelling at Ben, but Jordan told me he was fast asleep, and the next morning Ben didn't remember any of it.

Josh has only sleepwalked once, although he talks a lot in his sleep and sometimes sits up. The time he sleepwalked, we'd been dating for just a few months and I went with him to Montana. It was around midnight, and he opened the door to the room where I was sleeping, walked in and said something about getting away from someone, then turned around and left.

After all of these experiences, all I can say about sleepwalking is that it is creepy. It's almost like someone you don't know has taken over your sibling/husband's body and you are not quite sure what they are going to do. At least none of them peed in a closet.

Home Fixin's

There are a couple of things that always make any place feel more like home to me:

1. Plants.
















2. Curtains.

3. Rugs















4. Lamps

Stick Shift

So today I was leaving for work and decided to tell Josh that he may want to give himself a few extra minutes since there was frost on the windows of the vehicles. He asked me to start his truck for him. His truck has been having trouble starting, so when I turned the key and nothing happened, I just figured it was something wrong with the truck.

I texted school that I'd be a few minutes late, then told Josh he needed to hurry up so that we could ride together. About fifteen minutes later, as I was explaining to him what the truck had done, he asked if I had started it right.

I hadn't. I don't drive stick, and as a result, did not realize that I had to have the clutch pushed in when I was starting the truck. So, yeah... truck is fine.

Oranges

I love oranges. I have so many memories that have to do with oranges. Also, I'm really, really tired right now, so this will be a bit rambly.

We always used to eat a ton of oranges during the winter when I was little. So now, winter means that we should eat oranges. Whenever I eat one, I think of my mom, peeling them for us as we sat around doing whatever we did.

Also, I remember doing so many different things with oranges. Eating them (obviously). We also used to put the peels in a pan of water along with spices and set it on top of the heater so that yummy orangey smell filled the house. We used to put cloves in them so that they wouldn't go bad and would smell good. We made candy out of the peels one year. I also remember grating the peels off of oranges (I think that's called zesting???) but I don't remember what we used it for. I do remember cranberry sauce with orange peel bits in it. Yum.

Anyhow, all of that to say, I really like oranges. Oh yeah, we used to make "fireworks" with the peels. If you squeeze the peels to make the juice fly out next to a candle, all of the little squirts will catch on fire and "sparkle." Try it.

Christmas Wreck

It was ten years ago this Christmas that I was in a wreck with my cousin, just two days before Christmas day.

We were leaving church. It was pretty cold, rainy. A bunch of us decided to go get a bite to eat. I decided to ride with my cousin in his old Ford pick-up. He raced a friend out of the parking lot, and when we got onto the road, they were still vying for first place. My cousin mentioned that there were two ways we could get to the restaurant, and said, "Pick a or b."

I picked b, and he veered off onto a back road through the woods. He told me to put on my seatbelt (which I had already done because I am a law-abiding citizen, thank you very much) because we'd be going fast. I'm not sure how fast we were going, but I'm sure it was well over the speed limit, when we hit a long curve in the road.

The truck very gently began sliding towards the outside of the curve. My cousin slowed down, and it seemed like the truck was back on track when it began to fishtail back and forth across the road. On one side of the road was a lake or pond, and the other side, a small hill covered with trees.

Suddenly we were hurtling straight towards a huge tree. We were in a truck with no airbags, and the tree was just yards ahead of us, and we were still moving pretty quickly. I just knew it would be very, VERY bad if we hit the tree head on.

At the last minute, the truck swerved a couple feet aside, missing the tree and heading down the hill. I was so glad we had missed the tree that relief was the most overwhelming feeling I had as we began to roll end over end down the hill.

Tumbling down the hill was really surreal. All of these baby trees seemed to rush towards us, and I could hear them slapping against the truck. Then we were flipping over and so much dust filled the truck that I had to close my eyes.

When we stopped, the truck was lying on the driver's side, facing the opposite direction we'd been coming. My cousin asked if I was okay and I said, "I've got dust in my eyes." It took me a few moments to remember to ask him if he was okay.

Once I had rubbed away the dust and opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was smoke coming from under the hood. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make me feel a bit panicked. I pushed on the door, but it was so heavy, and I was hanging from the seatbelt, and I couldn't open it. I looked down at my cousin and told him I couldn't get the door open. I turned back to try again and still couldn't get it.

When I looked back down, my cousin was gone. Later he said that he couldn't remember getting out of the truck, but there he was, standing outside of the truck (the back window had popped out). My seatbelt wouldn't unclick with me hanging in it, so he lifted me up enough to get the weight off of it, and helped me down.

Neither of us had cell phones, so we had to climb up the hill and walk a ways to get to a house where we could call someone.

When friends and family showed up, they said that they had just been about to come looking for us since we had never made it to the restaurant. If something had happened to us, though, they would have had a hard time finding us that night because you couldn't see the truck from the road. The truck was totaled.

It was all pretty crazy. And one of the craziest things was that the worst injury I got from it was months later when I put on the gloves I had been wearing that night and cut myself on a piece of glass that was down in one of the fingers.

Underwater River

Here is a crazy picture of an underwater river:

That little shiny thing on the left side of the picture is a diver. Isn't that one of the craziest things ever....?!?!?!

For more cool underwater pictures: http://www.tecdive.ru/en/post/show/38

Itchy Feet

Josh and I move a lot compared to most people. Most of the time, we agree about the timetable for moving. One day we both look at each other and just know, it's time to start thinking about moving on. In fact, we have become so used to moving, that the thought of staying anywhere "forever" gives both of us a panicky feeling. It surprises people, how often we move. They have a hard time understanding WHY we move so much. So here are some of the reasons:

-Opportunity:  We see better opportunities somewhere else, so we go there.
-Necessity: We can only do what we want to somewhere else, so we go there.
-Because we want to: Sometimes we just want to go live in a certain place. We want to experience a certain lifestyle or we want to live close to family, so we go for a little while.
-Because we are ready for the next thing: This is kind of like the opportunity, but sometimes even when we have great opportunities where we are, we are just ready for the next thing in life.
-We go where life takes us: Sometimes, it just feels right to move. Josh says, "The earth is moving. We're just trying to keep up."