Sleep Apnea

Don is always tired. Not just tired, but really, really tired. A few years ago his doctor recommended a sleep study. Once we found out what our out of pocket would be, he never went.

Fast forward years (and years) later. We inquired with our current insurance, so an appointment was made. Don went to the clinic and had the study done. And a diagnosis of severe sleep apnea was made.

Saturday night, he goes back to the sleep clinic to try a CPAP machine, which is his only treatment option.

I am excited about the possibility that he will not be so darn tired all the time

Downtown Dallas

We spent the morning today at the Downtown Dallas Farmer's Market. I sure wish it was anything like the Market in Los Angeles - that place is awesome!

The Dallas Farmer's Market consists of many "sheds" where vendors can pull up their trucks and sell produce. I think very few items or vendors are local. I was disappointed with the freshness the last time we were there, so I tried to be more careful - if that is at all possible.

Our main reason for going is to buy Don more honey. We bought it for the first time on our last trip to the farmer's market and he has been loving it ever since. Says it is the best honey he has had EVER.

Reese and I decided we would buy the ingredients to make salsa. I looked up receipes to can, but am still not convinced we can pull it off. I did make a batch of fresh and it came out well (it cannot be canned as it needs vinegar to preserve). Reese drove me to the corner store to buy chips and geeze was that an experience!

Walker complained the entire time that he just wanted to go home - quite typical for him.

On our way out we drove through downtown. We passed this cool hotel pool which belongs to the boutique Joule Hotel. Pretty amazing that the pool hovers over a downtown city street.

Here is a photo of the pool from their website:

At $320 per night (summer special), I doubt we will be swimming in this awesome pool.

Our last drive by was past the Stoneleigh Hotel, where we were married. That hotel we do plan to return to, perhaps on our next anniverary. The interior has been completely renovated since we were there and we definitely want to see what was done.

Enjoying Summer

Summer vacation continues .....

Reese attended his first week of day camp. He has enjoyed teen camp for years and had fun. *I* felt bad after dropping him off the first day. The scheduled seemed really scaled back from years past. The kids seemed unenthusiastic and not really happy to be there. Reese enjoyed himself and had fun. He is signed up for one more week, so I asked if he wanted to go back - he looked at me quizically and said "yes!". Reese is such a happy guy. His glass is half full and he sees the best in everything.

Walker and I spent the week together. Er, I should say we spent the week at home. He has played an aweful lot of Wii and Gameboy. He does not want to leave the house or go anywhere. That is what makes him happy. We did swim one day, run errands and do a few things - but his wish was to play his games

Guitar Hero on Tour remains Walker's favorite birthday gift. He LOVES it. It is so funny to hear him singing rock songs. Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" and Smash Mouth's "All Star" are current favorites. I have to say that I like it waaayyyy better than the Wii version. The song selection is much closer to my taste in music. Most music is by the original artist instead of just bad covers.

This week, I was selected as a member of my PTA's Audit Committee. Before you are impressed with such an honor, no one else would do the job. Two members from last year agreed to the job because no one else would and they then drafted me because they knew I could easily join their team and get the job done. My PTA is starved for volunteers, but I suppose that is a diffrent post

Thank you Notes

Walker dictated thank you notes to me for the birthday gifts he received. These totally reflect him and his personality. I think some re-writing is in order

Dear Aunt and Uncle,
Thank you for the Razor scooter. I think it would be very hard to be able to practice. Thank you for mailing me something for my birthday.

Like,
Walker


Dear Aunt
Thank you for the three $5 bills. I spent the money on Super Paper Mario for my Wii Game. I am going to play it right now. Thanks a lot

Like,
Walker



Dear Aunt and Uncle
Thank you very very very much for the check money for my birthday. I spent the money on a Super Paper Mario Game. I am going to figure out if I like it or if I do not like it. Thank you for sending me something.

Like,
Walker

Walker's 7th Birthday

Walker had a great seventh birthday. For a kid who tries really hard to be stoic and not admit to any fun, he really had a great day.

Look at the anxiety on on his face. He spends way too much time being anxious. I sure hope we are able to help him with this.

Summer is not a great time to celebrate a kid's birthday. School friends are scattered about so it is difficult to get friends together for a party - even if I could track classmates down. Last year, I made a party just before the school year ended and the poor guy was confused about why his birthday came early.

Walker's asked to have his party at Chic-fil-A. We would have catered it in, but the family was not available on Monday, so we moved the party to Sunday, but Chick-Fil-A is does not open on Sundays! Don grilled dogs and burgers so it all worked out fine. Walker requested his favorite Cinnamon cake, and that was an easy request to fill.

Walker received all the gifts he requested so he was quite happy. He also got to spend the evening with many of his favorite people.

Guitar Hero for DS, Pokemon, Legos and Wii Fit: Life does not get much better

Making a wish

He played with his new Lego set for HOURS! He played alone, he played with me, he played with Don

Don't go to this hospital

Into the trip, Don began complaining about his knee being stiff and uncomfortable. He did not remember injuring it. Once he got moving, he felt okay.

Until Sunday night, when he woke about midnight in extreme pain. On a scale of 1-10 he was an 11. We left for the hospital about 12:30 am. We got to see a doctor around 3, which was after me complaing and after most everyone (about four people) were all taken in before us. Their rate of taking patients was about one every half hour. No kidding, a woman with a mesquito bite was taken before us. I think they need to reevaluate their triage system!

We were taken to X-ray by a surley attendant, who immediatly took back her wheelchair as soon as the test was complete.

We saw two doctors, a younger woman and an older man. Both had no idea what could be causing the extreme pain. X-rays showed nothing, so they sent us on our way with mild painkillers.

We got back to the hotel about 6 am, slept until 8, had breakfast, filled prescriptions and hit the road back to Dallas.

We will have to see the rest of Galveston another day

The Gout

After our six hour drive home, I got on the computer. With a suggestion from my message board buddies I asked Don if he thought he might have gout. He has had it before in his toe, but it can affect any joint. He actually said he had thought about asking the doctor about it. Don took a previous Gout prescription and stronger pain meds and almost immediately began feeling better.

Had that yutz of a doctor done a simple Google search, perhaps he could have made the diagnosos!

We saw Don's regular doctor the next day and she immediately diagnosed gout. What a disservice we were done at the hospital, where they said they had no diagnoisis and nothing they could do for us. Had they made the diagnosis and started medication he would probably be completely better now.

Galveston

Our trip to Galveston, Texas was my first. We decided to go since it is located only one hour from Houston and we thought it would be a fun activity. We were looking forward to seeing the history of the city as well as visiting the beach town. I think Don had been there as a youth.

The beach was not as I expected. I had heard that the beaches are brown, the water less than beautiful and in general not great beaches. Still, not what I expected - I knew I would not see the sugar white beach of the Alabama/Florida Gulf Coast, but still.

A seawall was built along the water, so all hotels are located across the main drag of the city. To get to the beach, you have to cross a busy street and then down a flight of stairs. To deal with erosion, huge granite bolders were placed along the shoreline.

Directly across from our hotel were the huge bolders - about a mile down the road were regular beaches. The water smelled, which Walker could not deal with. The smell might have been better on the regular beach.

We visited The Strand, a historic outdoor shopping center. Reese enjoyed a game of chess on an oversized chess board. We went in a few shops and just walked around. We saw at Carnival Cruise ship - and geeze, was it HUGE!

Dinner was at Gaido's an old school, recommended fish restauant.

Nasa

We left Houston and headed to our mini-vacation in Galveston. In route we stopped at NASA. Don and Reese were there years ago and enjoyed it. We all also loved visiting NASA on the Space Coast many years ago.

Sadly, I was disappointed in the trip and would most definitely not recommend it. The main exhibit was a huge indoor playground which had absolutely nothing to do with space exploration. Perhaps we would have learned and enjoyed more if we had taken some of the tram tours.

The kids had a great time. Reese went through the entire playground area and Walker tried - and did very well - on a trapeze!

Texas Battleship and San Jacinto Monument

Our Houston activity was a trip to the Texas Battleship and San Jacinto Monument.

The monument is a huge statue with reflecting pond. The boys took an elevator to a top observation deck. Lots of history all around.

View from the observation deck

Across the park is the Texas Battleship. It is huge and claustrophobic - I cannot imagine being stationed on this ship. We could not decide if, when in service, the ship had air conditioning. We saw the living and working quarters and Reese even checked out the equipment.

Reese "holding up" the monument

Houston Texas

We checked into our Houston hotel and then were off to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They were quite happy to see us - most especially the boys.

They both appeared older and more frail since we had seen them six months ago. Grandpa Gene is on oxygen and has help almost 24/7. He now does not seem to recover from each step down he takes. Walker was slow to warm up, but did come around - by the time we were leaving! We are still sad/disappointed that they chose to live in Houston rather than Dallas.

Gene was thrilled to have Reese recant his trip to ROTC Camp. His body is failing him, but his mind is sharp.

Highlights of the trip included:

** Grandma cooking for her baby boy - his favorite chicken and dumplings. Don loved it.

** Hot Dogs at James's Coney Island

** A giant Border's book store at the Houston Galleria for Beth and Reese

Time for a trip - vacation?

Time to visit the inlaws. We are off to Houston to visit Grandma and Grandpa with a small vacation along the way.

We will drop off Ozzy with my mom and dad (thank you!), pick up Reese from his last driving class and then be on the road!