Te gusta ir conmigo?

I had my 15 year high school reunion the other day. Well, more of a tailgate party to be correct! I was standing with Blake talking to an old girl-friend of mine when I heard someone say, "Is this my 7th grade girlfriend?" I turned to see Ben, (the first guy who made my heart flutter) standing there! I couldn't believe it was him! This was they guy that I spent HOURS talking to on the phone. You know, the ancient kind that didn't have texting, and pictures, and video, and Internet, and well....anything but good 'ol fashioned talking! I remember the day he asked me to be his girlfriend like it was yesterday! I was in 7th grade so I was probably 13. I always tried to go out of my way to "bump" into him and talk to him and pass notes back and forth. (I know, sooo old fashioned, but we didn't have cell phones smaller than a small car let alone texting!) Anyway, he passed me a note one day which I opened eagerly and read, "Te gusta ir conmigo?" Now, I don't speak Spanish so it was killing me that I had no idea what it said! (Again, too bad I didn't have my iPhone to just pull up the Internet and look it up. Wow, I am old!)

Well, I got home and pulled out a Spanish dictionary and looked up each word...

Te: You

gusta: like

ir: to go

conmigo: with me

Now as I said, I don't speak Spanish nor do I now speak Spanish. So I have no idea if that is even correct. But he apparently took 7th grade Spanish and I was now his girlfriend! I don't remember how I answered him. I'm sure it was not by walking up to him and telling him anything. It was probably something much more mature like telling his cousin Dallas to tell him or passing another note. Somehow we got through it and it was official. The funny thing was that I was only 13 and therefore not allowed to date or have a boyfriend or anything that even came close to that! So our "going out" meant that we hung out at school and talked on the phone sometimes after school. I remember he really liked Simon and Garfunkel and I was way into Erasure. So he gave me a tape with "Bridge over troubled water" on it and I gave him an Erasure tape and some Drakkar Noir cologne for Christmas. I remember that he never kissed me but my heart skipped a beat every time I saw him or held his hand. (Yes mother, I held his hand... sorry!) He was my first real love! My older brother told me that it was just "puppy love" and I was so offended! I thought, how can this not be real? My heart knows that I am in love! And so began the ups and downs of my love life! Looking back, I suppose you could say that it was puppy love, because it was young and innocent and fun. As I grew older, I learned what heartache was and jealousy and eventually true love. But you have to experience it all. The scary thing is that now I have a daughter who is 13! I can't imagine her talking to any boy, let alone thinking she loves him! I'm sure she'll be MUCH more mature than I was and pay attention to her school work and leave the boys alone. At any rate, it was so fun to see Ben and introduce my puppy love to my true love. Funny thing is that as we talked, we discovered that they are both from the same little town in Idaho! Maybe my heart was drawn in some small way towards my future husband through Ben. Then again, maybe I was just a girl with stars in her eyes...

The difference a week makes

I decided to take the girls up to Idaho for the UEA weekend. We all needed some r&r and what better place to do that than Grandma and Grandpa's house! We left Thursday morning and had a fun three hour drive up to Blake's parents house. Blake wanted to weigh Halli before we left and so he did. She was up to 70 lbs. (Her normal weight previous to all the water retention was around 52 lbs. We waved goodbye to Blake and hit the road. The girls plugged in my Ipod to the truck speakers and we all sang at the top of our lungs to Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." It has become a favorite of the girls' for some reason! Anyway, I was thinking that maybe Halli looked a little less swollen. When we got to Mom and Dad's house, they commented that Halli looked much better than she did when they had seen her last. I agreed although her belly and ankles were still very swollen. I went to bed that night feeling positive that maybe she would begin to slowly respond to the medication and lose the water. The next morning I was awoken by a bouncy and happy Halli on my bed! She was jumping on my bed and yelling "MOM! Today is a celebration day!" She pulled up her shirt and my mouth dropped! I couldn't believe the difference! Her belly was at least half the size it had been the day before! Her ankles, face, everything were drastically reduced! All the girls were on my bed by then and we all smiled and hugged and cheered for Halli. That was the beginning of our day of celebration. It was also the beginning of the weekend of peeing for Halli! She went to the bathroom more times this weekend than I've seen her do in a long time! By Saturday, her body had lost all of its swelling and looked normal again. I couldn't believe how fast it happened! I was expecting a slow process and it happened literally overnight! We tested her urine and weighed her this morning. Her protein level is only a trace. That is very good news, it means her kidneys have responded to the medication. Her weight is now 51 lbs! She lost 19 lbs in 3 days. The human body is absolutely amazing to me. I am constantly in awe at how it works. As I have watched her today, I noticed a couple of things. First, her eyes actually look gaunt and sunken. I don't know if this is from losing so much fluid so fast or maybe from a lack of sleep. Her cough is still present, but seems to be diminished. Also, she gets bursts of energy and bursts of anger. I can tell that her emotions are all over the place. I've chatted with the older girls and told them what is going on so they can be patient with her.

Although the swelling is gone, we still have a long road ahead. It is so good to have our Halli back. I believe that her improvements are the result of much fasting and prayer. Thank you to everyone who has kept us close to their hearts.

We spent our day of celebration playing with Grandma and Grandpa. We rode Go-Carts, got ice cream, drove to a honey boutique and enjoyed hanging out at their house. It was a perfect weekend. The only thing missing was Blake!