House!

So, here's the scoop. haha.

The lot is staked out as of this last weekend.
Diggin a hole for the basement tomorrow.
Thursday pouring the basement floor.
Friday pouring the basement walls.

Next week...
waterproofing the walls, underground water pipes to the house, back fill.

Following Monday (aug 4) start framing!

DANG!! Things are comin right along. Thank you Bill and Leo for bein on the ball! I have no time to write today, so you'll just have to wait for more substantial reading. =)

I must quit you

WOW. Being in Hawaii has given me a new appreciation for the lake here. It's got all the same perks...minus the crystal clear water, and the coral, and the giant fish, and the palm trees, and the salt, and the whole 'ocean' part....but really it's pretty close to the same. ANYWAYS...the boys and I hit it up 3 days in a row!! NICE! Well...the first day I went with Emily and right when we got there it got cloudy. LAME-O. SO that time didn't last long. Yesterday, Heather and I headed down there with the boys...the wind from the North was FREEZING and the water was like a liquid ice cube. (?) There were times when we had goose bumps. Not prime beachin. But TODAY...excellent. Ryan, Heather and their three kids, E and G and me. It was fun. Perfect weather...and again, the boys enjoyed their little pool...only this time I put the pool on a blanket so they didn't eat as much sand. haha. Takes me a while...but I learn! Check out the difference in the waves from yesterday to today. It was like glass today!! So much quieter too...


Here's pretty much what the boys do in their little pool...in, out...in, out...sand in mouth...slap the water. haha.
SO what do we do about the perfect water for boat ridin....call up our friends, Rich and Deb...soooooo great...can't even say it.....got some subway, a few beverages and a Susie Thomas blueberry pie and headed out for open waters. I've never been out on the lake before. It was THE PER-FECT NIGHT. Not even kiddin...but I have no proof because I forgot my camera. Dang! We watched a gorgeous sunset, had some great time together, Joe and Suz got to see the boys. hehe. A Win-Win. Rich also pointed out today during our boat planning that if I'm so busy busy like my blog says then how do I have so much time to beach it? WELL, I suppose I should clarify. By busy, I mean, not home. I have very important appointments scheduled with my friends that just happen to include sand, water, and sun. =) I am busy running everywhere though...and now that the house stuff is starting...........check it out!!
They scraped the lot today!! Bill called to tell me that, so I thought I should begin my documentation of the event from the very beginning...so here it is! Ry stopped by on his way home from work and said the whole thing is done now. WOAH! As you're looking at the pic, we have a neighbor to the left (west) and another empty next to us before the houses start back up again. And really, the bottom one is like you're looking into our dining room window. Oh ya, I can see it.

Anyhoo, it's already 1 in the am, but I don't usually get uninterrupted computer time...so I'm takin advantage! Got my coffee and it's time to catch up on like a month of blog reading!! =)

without you in my reach...

Does it work?? moment of truth.....

boo yaaaa

There are a MILLION other pictures of the trip, but didn't figure you had an hour to sit and look thru em all. PLUS, Heather and Richard are going to send a cd of pics taken with their camera and the underwater one. Can't wait for those...and then I"ll put some more up. We had tons of fun touring the island of Oahu...various beaches, trails, roads, restraunts, shopping, wildlife, motion ocean...you know, Hawaii stuff. SO fun.

I can't even tell you how much time I DON'T have to tell you all what's up. I'm too busy to tell you how busy I am?? I really don't know where my time goes...when the boys are awake I play on the floor with them...actually it's more like lay on the floor and they crawl on me. And when they're sleeping I'm doing crap that's piled up around the house. haha. Speaking of house stuff, we're days away from having a basement hole. !! Ryan's trying to get used to going to work again...and the boys are eating food 2x a day. WOW. Fatties!! I haven't put many pics up of them...sorry! Here's how they climb and crawl. Example: last night.


awww they're so cute!

Home Sweet Home!

WOW. We're pretty tired... let's just say a 6 hour flight during the night in seats that don't recline doesn't really make for the best sleeping conditions. Just wanted to check in and say that indeed we are safe and sound, quickly approaching the end of our lovely vacation. We are about 90% unpacked and mail-updated...boys are sleeping, tomorrow Ryan goes back to work and I get to play with the boys ALL DAY!!!

Can't wait. =)
Good night!

underwater digital camera. WOW

So the guy that owns this house bought an underwater digital camera. It's AWESOME. And we can use it as much as we want. Totally new. Richard's been takin some sweet action shots, and we've only been out with it for 1 day! Don't have much time to write so here's just a few pics so you can see what we've been swimmin with. =)



Ok just kidding. That was us practicing in the backyard pool for our underwater ocean adventures. =)
This is where we spent our morning. Rough, I know.

The creepy sick-o eel that was just chillin in the reef. He was probably happy as can be, but pretty sure he was ready to pounce.

There were SOOO many fish...big ones small ones, some as big as your head. hahaha.. no seriously though, the fish are all used to humans, so they just keep on swimmin. you can get really close to em and they don't care. Most were between 6 in and 18 inches big. Very cool!

And then we found the sea turtle. We followed him around for a long time. haha. just floating thru the water....that was sweet!

what are these underwater creatures?!


Speaking of water adventures. awwww look what were missing....=) So cute!



Until next time!!

Oahu. This is the life.

WOW. There are too many things to tell you all. We spent the morning snorkeling...the house is BEAUTIFUL to say the least...I'm going to have to figure out how to do a slide show thing on here cause we have a million pics already. =)

Meanwhile back at the ranch...G and E livin the vacation life also...haha



Thanks Schoonvelds for watchin the boys!!!

We're about to go on a hike into the mountains to find a huge waterfall. yessss

So long boys!

Well, my crazy Friday in nearing its end. Thought before I don't post for a while I'd put some good pics up of the boys in case any of my readers might go thru twin withdrawls like I will. =)

Now this is just cute...

Just playin while we packed...




See ya mom and dad, have fun in Hawaii!!

The day approaches...

Let's start off with story time with Jishy.

Good evening friends and family! Well, Erin has an an eventful and productive day. She started the day off with a chest x-ray at 5:30am; although I was back in Platte City sound asleep, I'm being told all went well. Erin's grandmother and I arrived at the hospital around 7:45am and we've all pretty much been hanging out all day. Erin's mom and grandma left about 90 minutes ago and will be staying at our apartment in Platte City; we'll see them again tomorrow morning before they head back to Omaha around lunch time. It's been great having some family around helping where and when they can. Very supportive! Erin also received a visit from her boss at Fitness Source. Kristina stopped by to see how everything was going...and she brought some ice cream (a personal favorite)!! Again, I cannot say enough how thankful I am to have the people we have in our lives. I believe God puts people in our lives for specific reasons and at the exact time He chooses; the women that Erin has worked with at Fitness Source are so encouraging and unique and compassionate. I am very thankful to them for all they've done for her over the last 15+ months.

Erin is sound asleep right now. In addition to the visits from friends and family, she has ventured out of her room a couple times to take a walk. I am so encouraged by her strength, knowing what she has gone through the last 48 hours. She is simply amazing. Erin has also begun eating a variety of foods. Although she hasn't eaten a full meal b/c of the nausea she feels, the fact that she's willing to try different foods in pretty incredible. So far, she's tried carrots, applesauce, jell-o, potato soup, saltines, bread, chicken noodle soup...and I think that's it. Not bad at all.

I will be staying w/ Erin tonight. Not sure how much sleep I'll be getting, but at least I'm here w/ my wife. Tomorrow should be another good day for her. Another chest x-ray at 5:30am. Also, more friends will be stopping by to visit, which will be a lot of fun. She enjoys that time so much. Not sure what kind of surprises will come regarding food and walking, but I'm excited to share it with you if/when new things happen!! I cannot tell you (or her) enough how proud I am of her. Erin is showing so much courage and strength right now. I can only imagine the soreness she feels and how frustrating it must be b/c she can't do some of the things she's used to, but she continues to try and she continues to take steps towards recovery. I am so humbled by God's awesome power and how He has all of this mapped out before it ever even happened. His grace never fails!

I will continue to send daily updates to let you know how Erin is coming along in her recovery. Thank you for your phone calls, emails, prayers, and support. God continues to work in ways that I will simply never understand. That's fine with me...I'll just enjoy the ride! =)

Josh

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Thank you Pants! As I write this, I am mentally preparing myself for a crazy friday...making lists, lists about lists, and more lists to remind myself of all the TRILLION things I need to pack tomorrow...because....(drum roll...) SATURDAY, you guessed it, we're goin to HAWAII!!! WOO HOOO!!! As exciting as that sounds, I won't be yelling WOO HOO probably until the plane takes off. Until then I'm sure my mind will be going a thousand different places thinking of all the things I forgot to add to my lists and then forgot at home. ha. For those of you just tuning in, Ryan and I are extremely blessed to accompany our friends from Lincoln, Richard and Heather Clabaugh, to this lovely island for a week (they're staying 10 days)...at this incredibly GORGEOUS home for FREE - thanks to Heather's boss, who owns it as a 'perk' for his employees. It's two blocks away from the beach, in the middle of one of the most beautiful neighborhoods on the island. WOW.

As much as I would like to keep writing about the trip...I can't even think right now cause I need to get hoppin on the laundry. Don't worry, there will be MANY pictures...hopefully I'll have time to write when we get back...who knows...a week away from our little cute face boys might do me in for some serious baby time when we get home. =)

This is funny...this week we're house-sitting for our friends...they have a hot-tub...Josh and Emily came over tonight to hang out. She's pregnant, so the temp was set at like 95 something so as to not boil lil White-y....We get in with the twins in their little swimmy diaps (hilarious cause they splash around like crazy!) It starts raining.... gets really cold... jets make Emily nauseous at this stage in her 40 weeks...so we were basically in a 4-person-2-baby bath tub, in the middle of July, freezing our butts off. When was the last time that happened to you? Memories...sigh....

Well now that I've started...

I can't NOT post up the next email update...double negative = I MUST post the next letter from Josh. Here you are. =)

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Good afternoon everyone! Sorry about not updating sooner, but I thought I would wait until Erin was moved out of ICU and in to general recovery. That took longer than expected...thus the delay in the update. At any rate, Erin has just been transferred to general recovery. She is doing great, although the movement caused her some general soreness throughout her body. Since my last update, Erin has had most of her tubes removed. The two primary ones were the catheter and the arterial line (which was fed in to her carotid artery, I think). The arterial line was a beast...it was nearly 7 inches in length! Whoa. Don't worry...I took more pics. =) She also got out of bed to pee on her own; pretty much any movement at this point makes her extremely tired, but it is recommended b/c doing things on her own is critical to getting released.

Erin is resting right now. She was having some nausea issues earlier, but things are back to normal now. We're hoping to maybe get some food in her later tonight; right now, it is strictly ice chips. Yum yum! The room is pretty spacious with lots of amenities, so we should be just fine until she's released. Thank you all for your prayers this week. We're one step closing to heading back to Platte City, so please keep raising us up to the Lord, that He will continue healing Erin and restoring her strength and energy.

Josh



yeah!!!! (I added that part)

Wednesday!!

I'm so creative with my posts lately. =) Josh just says it way better than I could, so here's another update email.

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So, here I am. It is now 2:15am Central Time. Erin is sleeping soundly in her bed and I am sending out this email update. When I last wrote, Erin was just coming out of sedation. She was acknowledging voices, movies her extremities, and opening her eyes as much as she could. That was basically the jist of it. Since then, she has had her breathing tube removed and is now allowed to eat ice chips. The ice chips are a step up from the sponge-on-a-stick-soaked-in-water method we were using initially. The staff has been checking her hourly; if I remember correctly, on a pain scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being severe pain), Erin last measured in at a whopping 5. Awesome! Not bad for major open-heart surgery, I guess. =)

My plan was to head home for the night and get some rest, but that doesn't look like it will happen. Oh well. My wife asked me to stay and that is what I will do out of love for her. I was able to catch a nap for about an hour earlier, so hopefully that will help some. Right now things are very quiet in the ICU; maybe I should take advantage of that and call it a day. We'll see.

I want to thank you all again for the phone calls and emails and prayers and support and encouragement. I have been pretty calm w/ everything surrounding this surgery, but I must admit I had a moment of weakness when I first saw Erin in the ICU. I was trembling and my heart went out to her. Having Arlan there w/ me was very comforting b/c he's experienced this before; I asked him if the feelings I had were normal and he explained to me that he, too, was overcome w/ emotion during Erin's first surgery in 1991. At that point I didn't feel so awkward anymore. Thank you, Arlan, for being w/ me today.

Well, I think that should do it for now. I think the next 24 hours will be packed full of good news: Erin should get her catheter removed; she should also begin drinking fluids and possibly some food; and we might get her out of the bed and move around some. I will be sure to keep everyone in the loop. Thanks again for all the support. I know that God was with us today and I am truly thankful to Him for keeping Erin safe and keeping us strong.

Until next time...

Josh

Update!

Another letter from Josh this afternoon.....

Alright, update time! Erin has been moved from the O.R. to the ICU, where she is still under sedation. The surgery was an awesome success. Thank You Jesus!!!!! I was able to see her for about 45 minutes; the staff was explaining to me what all the tubes and monitors were for. Only two visitors are able to be in Erin's room at one time, so I was shuttling Arlan (dad), Beth (step-mom), and Kristy (friend) in one at a time to see Erin. I'm hoping she'll wake up sometime this evening, so I can see her before I head home for the night. I'll be here for several more hours, which means there's a good chance I'll get my wish. =)

Arlan, Beth, and Kristy just left for Omaha...so I'm here by myself right now. Seeing as how I'm simple-minded and easily entertained, I don't that as being a problem.

THIS JUST IN...Erin is about to wake up, which means I'm outta here. Gotta go see my wife!!! More to come...

Josh


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YES!!!! Great update!

Today is the Day!!

An email from my brother-in-law this morning....

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Good morning everyone!! Just wanted to write you all and let you know Erin's surgery is undery way. We arrived at the hospital at 6am this morning. After some paperwork and a few more tests, Erin was ready for the operation. We said our goodbyes around 7:15am. The actual surgery started about 9:30am. Erin's dad, step-mom, and friend made the trip down from Omaha last night; we're all hanging out in the waiting room right now. Before Erin went in for surgery, I asked one of her nurses if she wouldn't mind taking a few pictures during the procedure. She said yes!! So, we'll have some great action shots at some point later this week. I specifically asked for a shot of the new pulmonary artery that will be inserted this morning, as well as the old one needing to be replaced. I'm pretty stoked about that. =)

I'll provide a quick recap of what exactly is happening today w/ Erin's surgery. She was born w/ a congential heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot w/ Pulmonary Atresia. This means that Erin was born without a Pulmonary Artery, which is responsible for carrying oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. In 1990, Erin had an artificial pulmonary artery inserted in her heart. Since that time, that artificial piece has calcified significantly; the calcification has decreased her blood flow, leaving her with little energy. The blood pressure has also increased in the right ventricle dramatically; as a result, her doctors felt it necessary to have the artificial pulmonary artery replaced. So here we are.

As we have wireless Internet in the hospital, I will be able to provide updates throughout the day. I ask that you all continue to keep Erin in your prayers today and throughout the week. Please also pray for the surgical team. Thank you all for the support!!!

Josh

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Thank you friends and family for your prayers for my sis today and for the next few weeks as she recovers!!!

Idea Book

Cute little Huskers in the making. =) And a story about little E...over the weekend he was a HANDFUL to say the least. Always wanting to be held, drooling like a beast, crying, screaming, whimpering, wouldn't eat. SO, I used my faithful baby hot line, also known as Jenny Conklin and Steph Hohlen, and as advised I took him in to get checked yesterday. Turns out...he's got hand, foot, and mouth virus. Woah. Sounds like someone like me got to name it. Anyways, He has little tiny sores in the back of his throat and can also get them on his hands or feet, thus the name. It lasts like 4 or 5 days I guess, and there's really nothing you can do to help him out, poor guy. Last night and today already he's SO much better. Had to sanitize all the toys last night cause it's contagious. Awesome. So there's the Ethan update. And then THIS guy...ya, here's a little taste of what he does now...or has been doing for about a week. Pulls himself up on EVERYTHING...then either falls or starts crying cause he's stuck. haha. But he's pretty much self entertaining, which is AWESOME! Oh ya, and he no longer scoots, it's an all out crawl. I tried to upload a video of him pulling himself up on some furniture but guess it was too long. LAME-O. So I'll make a shorter one for your viewing pleasure.