A whirlwind weekend!

Well we have been planning for a long time and trying our best to keep it a secret....and it was a success! Julie had no idea we were coming to Ohio to see her show! The parents all knew and so did the Stanford's and Mike...It was amazing!

We left here Friday after Robbie was done with class and headed to Nashville for the night. Then we got up Saturday morning and repacked the car and headed to the Stanford house. Once we arrived we got to spend some time with them which included seeing Caden sit up, attempt to crawl and we also got to go and wake Carson up from his nap. Had a fantastic time visiting with them until it was time to go to the show. Headed over to the Porretta house to see Faith, Tom and Maddie. Maddie can now show us where the 'C' is on the piano (she is super smart) She was running around talking away...I was able to get her to say my name and it is actually getting closer to sounding like Jeni :-)

We arrived got out tickets and seats and waited for it to start (Julie still didn't know we were there) The show began and it was great! Carson had a great time watching, he only was really interested when Julie was on stage or when the music was going. He liked watching Julie be 'dizzy' aka her character was drunk and he thought she was silly. She did a great job, I've never seen her sing (heard her through the doors of the sanctuary at our wedding) or be in any musical/play before so it was a fun experience for me. Robbie hadn't see her since high school (I think) so I know he was excited also.

Once the show ended the cast took their final bow and was singing one last time....Janna started to wave at Julie while the orchestra was finishing up their song and then Robbie and I waved also....wait for it....Julie screams and runs off the stage (Orchestra still going...) and runs all the way back to us and gives some of the biggest hugs ever....Greatest reaction ever!

We went out to the after party at the Hickory house to spend some more time with Julie and Mike. It was great to catch up with them :-) After we finished eating (it was after midnight) we headed back to their house and said good night and went to sleep.

The next morning we got up and headed to Picktown for breakfast with Faith and Tom. From there we went to brunch with Joe and Gwen, the Porretta's and the Stanford's. It was a fantastic start to our day...We got to catch up with everyone and spend quality time with them all, it was super short but soooooooo worth it!

Then we headed to good ol' Grove City to visit with my parents. We just laid around and talked, watched some old movie. It was nice, then we had some yummy roast and watched another movie :-) I got to spend some time with my dog Zoe also! After a long day of visiting we said goodbye and went to bed.

Got up and left around 9 am and headed back to Alabama. It took 11 hours and 15 (ish) minutes to get back....I wasn't feeling overly well so it made it seem much longer :-( We came home unloaded the car and went to bed!

We may have only been in Ohio for a day and a half but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! We got to see how much the little ones have grown, catch up with siblings and see our parents, it was awesome :-)

Robbie donates Bone Marrow

For those of you who don't already know, Robbie donated bone marrow in January. Through the Army's system and his info on file they found that he was a match for a 65 year old woman with Leukemia. He was given 3 injections here at our house friday-sunday (not by me, an in home nurse came)

We left Sunday afternoon for D.C. and got in that night. Monday morning we got up and got ready to head to get his 4th injection and he was feeling very sick. I got him some sierra mist and pepto to help. Something I didn't know is that he usually has the opposite thing happen when taking medicine like that...and he threw up 3 times in the bushes outside the Marriot. He felt much better then and we headed to get his 4th injection. The nurses gave him some nausea medicine that made him super tired. We went back to the hotel and stayed in a dark room all day, he slept most of the day. We were going to site see that day and visit with his aunt and uncle, but decided against it since he felt so crappy.

Tuesday we got up really early and headed to do the donating part. They gave him his last injection and then hooked him up to the machine (I was not allowed back there yet, which I was ok with since it would have involved multiple needles and I would have been on the floor) So once he was all done being stuck they let me come back and camp out next to him. He got to pick some movies and they had T.V.'s for each patient to have with headphones for them and whoever was with them. I didn't really enjoy his choices so I played on Facebook and tried to take a nap when he did, but couldn't because I kept wondering if he needed something. He slept most of the 4 hours he was hooked up.

They ended up getting double the amount needed and in a shorter amount of time! So they unhooked him and gave us papers on what to watch for and all that. No worries I read it really carefully so I could properly watch him like a hawk :-) He stood right up and put on his shoes and we left to go back to the hotel where we again slept most of the day :-) We left the next morning bright and early (wait no bright, it was still dark out...) Once we were back here we layed down for about and hour and then Robbie had to get up and get ready to go into class (he wasn't allowed to miss) I took him in and them came home and laid down for awhile but he ended up only having about an hour and half of class that afternoon so basically as soon as I got home and comfy he texted me. I was ok with that though, because he needed rest.

Robbie couldn't do PT for until Monday of the next week so he would go in and watch them do their stuff and then go to class for the day. He never really had much of an issue with anything, just a few headaches here and there. He said they lasted about 20 min then would go away. He also had random bone pain, it would be in his elbow then jump to his knee. These were both side effects of the donation and went away within the week. He was great through the whole process! I was so very proud of him, as I know all of you are also!

Now for a few pictures of him during the donation:

Sleeping while donating

This is where everything came out....

This is where his blood went back in...