Day 2 of Julie's Amazing Whirlwind 11 day European Vacation

So are we having fun yet? I was able to sleep a lot on the flight to London. The plane was dark and quiet so that helped. When we landed in London it was 3 pm. We had missed our connection to Frankfurt so we headed (with all the other hoards of people) to the flight connections desk to rebook our flight.

The London airport is the craziest place I have ever been. The entire thing is made out of glass. You can see the insides of all the elevators and walls. So we went down and down and down and down the escalators and then got on a train. Then we went up and then down some more escalators (all the while not seeing a single shop or information desk)

When we finally came out to the area where we needed to be we looked over at a line that was at least 100 people long. We got in line and soon realized that we were going to be there for hours.

After about 40 minutes the airline started sending around employees with trays of snacks and water bottles. I guess hoping to appease the angry masses. Then we see one ray of sunshine. They were also having people walk the outside of the line (that snaked around like the line at an amusement park) and they were rebooking flights using a cell phone. Emily and I were still at the back of the line on the outside edge and we were one of the people with the golden ticket because they chose to pull us out of line and rebook our flight. The only problem was that there were no flights out that day so we were stuck here for the night.

We were told that we could get our suitcases and a voucher for a hotel and leave the airport. I guess the good news was that I was going to get an unexpected stamp in my passport.

We headed over to the customs and border patrol area (after waiting in another line to get our new boarding passes for our flight the next morning) We filled out the declarations form and got in line (do you sense a theme) to go through border control. Now off to find our luggage.

Our luggage was nowhere to be found and to make a long story of again waiting in line and waiting some more I will just tell you that our bags somehow got sent to storage so we just left them there to be put on our new flight the next morning. Now armed with a hygiene kit we headed to get our voucher for the hotel.

You would think that they would have this kind of stuff down to a science by now. It wasn't like we were on the first flight ever to be delayed. Well apparently we were part of a reinventing the wheel experiment because it took us 3 hours standing in line for them to print a voucher (taking all of 30 seconds) and send us on our way. I have no idea what everyone else was doing before us. Again saving some time and skipping over the waiting in line to catch the shuttle and waiting in line to check in the hotel. I will skip to the part where we finally eat (first time since raviolis at 4:30am) at the hotel restaurant. We were barely able to do this because it was now 10:50pm (yes it took us 7 and 1/2 hours to get out of that airport) and the restaurant closed at 11pm. Then up to our room take a shower change into the big white tee shirt provided in our hygiene kit and fall into bed in order to get up by 3:45am to catch the shuttle back to the airport and start all over again tomorrow.

Are you tired yet?

The First Day Of Julie"s Amazing Whirlwind 11 day European Vacation

Day 1--My adventure begins on December 20th. Emily had driven in the night before in order to spend Christmas with the kids and so that Steve could drive us to the airport. In the morning we got up and had Christmas morning. Santa is a pretty smart guy and knew that I was not going to be home on Christmas Day so he came early.

We woke up to a white Christmas because we had about 18 inches of snow fall the day before. This was a little bit worrisome because we were supposed to fly out that night, but since they had the airport completely open we figured that we should be ok. We had a great morning knowing that since church was cancelled due to the snow we didn't have any obligations until I left for the airport that evening. We opened gifts and had our traditional big Christmas breakfast/brunch and then headed out to play in the snow.

After playing in the snow I had to bite the bullet and finish packing. I had really put things off because I hate to decide what I am going to want to wear a week from now when I can hardly decide what I want to wear that morning. I checked the status of our flight and found out that we were delayed an hour. Not a big deal because we had a 4 hour layover in London so we would still be fine to catch our connecting flight into Frankfurt. ( can you sense some foreshadowing) We got to the airport several hours early and were able to check in just fine. The problem came when the person who checked our baggage told us to go to gate D23, the board in the airport said to go B44 and our boarding pass said D38. Now we had to find someone to ask where in the world we were really supposed to go. Of course there was no one to be found. We spoke with several other people that we had seen in line and finally decided that we would head to D38 since that was the most official. When we got there there were other people waiting for our same flight so we decided (nervously) to stay. There were still no airline employees to be found. Our flight was originally scheduled to depart at 10pm with an hour delay at 11pm. At 11:15 we decided that since nobody had come to board us and we were still in the airport we were going to have longer than an hour delay. (NOW WE ARE TECHNICALLY INTO DAY 2) At about 12:30am the flight crew showed up and they started boarding at 1:15am. (Apparently they were waiting at gate B44) Once we were finally on the airplane the pilot came on and said that we would be another 45 minutes until all of our baggage was on board. After about 40 minutes he came back on and said that two people had decided not to fly and they now had to get the baggage off the airplane so they could get their bags. It is a good thing that nobody could see who it was that was leaving the flight or their lives were certainly going to be at risk. At 3:00am we finally taxied and took off. We were now officially going to miss our connection. We did have some delicious Raviolis for dinner at 4:30 in the morning.

Seth's Adventure in the Ambulance continued

So we left off with Steve getting to the hospital in DC. The neurosurgeon and the neurologist came to talk with us. They had reviewed the CT scan that had been done and said that it looked like he had sublaxation of the C1 and C2 (or in layman's terms dislocated vertebrae in his spine) This meant that they would need to put him in traction to try and get the bones back into place. Because he is so little they would have to put him to sleep deep enough that he would essentially be paralyzed. This would also require him to be incubated and kept on a respirator. They would then have to decide whether he would have to wear a halo (which requires holes being drilled into their skull) Needless to say we were extremely worried at this point. They wanted to get another CT scan with his collar on to make sure that there wasn't a mistake. At that point it was midnight and I was exhausted. My sister Emily (who lives about 15 minutes away in Arlington VA) came to get me and I went home with her to try and get some sleep. Steve stayed with Seth and they went to get another CT scan. The new scan still showed that the bones were not in place so they admitted him to the ICU. In the morning the neuro team came to talk to Steve. They said that they had been comparing the two CT scans done and they saw some differences between them. Because of these differences it was leading them to believe that the muscles in his neck were spasming and and pulling thus causing the bones to move. They wanted to observe him and give him some muscle relaxers and see what happened. This was really good news, but they still weren't sure and so we waited and waited and waited..... We were still in ICU because they didn't have a regular room available. ICU requires the kids to be constantly monitored. Seth had so many wires coming from him that it made it hard to him to move around. We spent all day Tuesday trying to keep him occupied and hoping that everything was going to turn out to be muscles spasms. He was hooked up to an IV because he hadn't been allowed to eat just in case. Tuesday afternoon they decided that they didn't need to do an MRI so they unhooked the fluids and allowed him to eat. He spent the next hour eating everything that we put in front of him.

Since we were supposed to have left for St Louis on Monday we began to wonder what Thanksgiving was going to hold. I had decided that we were going to just skip it all. I was just too tired to think of doing anything. Tuesday night we got the good news that in that they wanted to do two more CT scans, but that barring anything new he would be able to leave the hospital on Wednesday. Now that we were pretty much out of danger Steve and I decided that I should go home and see the other kids. Hannah was especially having a hard time. I got home and took a sleeping pill and finally slept after 3 days. Wednesday morning I got the call that I had been waiting for. The new CT scans showed that the muscles had finally relaxed and allowed the bones to go back into place. Seth was being released!

Steve decided that if I got everything ready before they got home that we could leave for St Louis that afternoon. Seth got permission to travel as long as he wore the neck brace in the car as a precaution against further muscle strain or damage.

(this is the exact brace that he wore. I am still working on getting the pictures off of my phone)

I don't remember much about the packing or driving there, but we were able to have a great Thanksgiving with my siblings and parents. I am not sure that I really have recovered. I have been tired ever since.

I am really really grateful for the way things turned out. Steve gave him a blessing in the hospital and was able to feel very confident that no matter what needed to happen that Seth would be fine in the end. The doctors were wonderful and thorough. I especially have to thank the most wonderful nurses on the planet. They made the whole thing bearable.

What a crazy adventure that life leads us on. I am hoping that we won't have that particular adventure ever again.

Steve

We have been part of a small branch for the last 4 and 1/2 years since we moved to WV. The ward that shared our building had continued to grow larger and larger, but the branch stayed tiny and struggled. Yesterday they finally redid the boundaries and made our small branch into a ward. We knew that this was probably coming because a special meeting had been called for both units in our building. On Saturday before this meeting we got a call that we needed to meet the Stake president before the meeting. This led to a day of speculation and joking on our part as to what they wanted to ask. Steve got called to be 2nd counselor in the new Bishopric.

He has been serving for a long time, but has just kept getting better and better.

He is of course nervous, but excited to be able to serve those people he has really come to love. I have watched him grow especially over the last few years. He is a strong, faithful man who will serve with everything he has. I just hope that I can keep up

Seth's Adventure in the Ambulance

The Thursday before Thanksgiving Seth fell off the couch backwards and landed really hard on the back of his head. He had a decent goose egg, but it seemed ok once it was iced. The next morning the goose egg was gone and other than a little complaining that his neck hurt he seemed fine. Over the weekend the complaining continue and he started holding his head funny. On Monday I decided that I should take him in to the doctor to make sure that everything was fine. I took him to the urgent care center in Frederick (about 1/2 hour from home) so that I could set my own schedule. They had an x-ray machine and a CT scan so I figured we could be in and out. After 3 x-rays and 1 CT scan the doctor came out and said that they didn't like what they saw so the EMT's were on their way to transport us to the hospital. (What!!? You mean Motrin and icy hot right?) I called Steve who was working from home and told him what was going on. He decided to wait at home for the other kids to get off the bus and see what the hospital said. When the ambulance got there they put him on the backboard that you have seen a million times on TV and movies. They also put him in a neck brace. Seth didn't think that it was as wonderful as it sounded to ride in an ambulance. When we got to Frederick Memorial Hospital they sent the films that we had with us up to the Neurologist and we waited. After a little while we got word that the Neurologist didn't like the looks of his films either, but he wasn't a pediatric specialist so didn't feel comfortable treating him. They put in a call to Johns Hopkins and DC Children's hospitals. DC Children's accepted us and off we went in another ambulance. It is about an hour from Frederick, but because by now it was rush hour it took us 2 hours to get to DC. Steve in the mean time had arranged for his mom to come and take care of the other kids and a friend to drive him to Frederick to get the car and then follow us to DC. By now this adventure had taken about 8 hours of which neither one of us had eaten anything. They decided that Seth could not eat just in case they had to do further tests. Needless to say the two of us were not very happy campers. Seth did really well with little complaining especially once Steve got to DC with the mini movie player and toys. Seth is a Daddy's boy through and through.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story and a picture of my trooper.

Ego payment

I just started a new piano student on Tuesday. She is the same age as Joseph (7). We see her every morning at the bus stop and on Wednesday morning she ran up to me and handed me an envelope with my name on it. When I opened it this is what I found inside.

You can't read the writing very well but it labels her (on the right) and me (on the left) and the title says Piano lessons. It was very sweet. I won't tell her mom because she has already paid me, but this was the perfect payment for the lessons. Some days you realize that things are just worth it.

Family Fun

I love it when the kids do things together. Because my kids have several years in between we have recently started having the issue of what do you do that a 13 year old would be interested in and still have the 4 year old be able to participate.The best thing at this time of year of course is Pumpkin carving. Now that all of the kids are older this activity is less chaotic and more fun. They really look forward to cutting up the pumpkins as well as grossing out over the guts

There are also those activities that keep them entertained all by themselves --which I will take as well.

l

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After all of the work being a family can be fun.