Wedding day finery….

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Just sharing a few pictures from our wedding day.  It is several months away, but I am just sharing from a blog post I read today.

Dealing with Asthma….A lifestyle change for me.

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Figure A shows the location of the lungs and airways in the body. Figure B shows a cross-section of a normal airway. Figure C shows a cross-section of an airway during asthma symptoms.

The graphics in this post and brief synopsis below are from the National Heart, lung and blood Institute

Asthma (AZ-ma) is a chronic (long-term) lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing. The coughing often occurs at night or early in the morning.

Asthma affects people of all ages, but it most often starts during childhood. In the United States, more than 25 million people are known to have asthma. About 7 million of these people are children.

Overview

To understand asthma, it helps to know how the airways work. The airways are tubes that carry air into and out of your lungs. People who have asthma have inflamed airways. This makes them swollen and very sensitive. They tend to react strongly to certain inhaled substances.

When the airways react, the muscles around them tighten. This narrows the airways, causing less air to flow into the lungs. The swelling also can worsen, making the airways even narrower. Cells in the airways might make more mucus than usual. Mucus is a sticky, thick liquid that can further narrow the airways.

This chain reaction can result in asthma symptoms. Symptoms can happen each time the airways are inflamed.

Sometimes asthma symptoms are mild and go away on their own or after minimal treatment with asthma medicine. Other times, symptoms continue to get worse.

When symptoms get more intense and/or more symptoms occur, you're having an asthma attack. Asthma attacks also are called flareups or exacerbations (eg-zas-er-BA-shuns).

Treating symptoms when you first notice them is important. This will help prevent the symptoms from worsening and causing a severe asthma attack. Severe asthma attacks may require emergency care, and they can be fatal.

Looking back over these last months I realize I have been dealing with this since October and possible even as early as August of this year and prior to that I am not sure.  And to say the least, I am on a terrible learning curve as to how to manage this disease.

While many Asthma attacks can be triggered by environmental triggers i.e. pets, smoking, dust, vacuuming, cold weather, the main culprit in my situation are bacterial infections—getting sick, and the cold weather…

My issue has been trying to figure out which is the cold symptom and which is the Asthma.  Both issues cause excess mucous to be produced and terrible chest coughing.

This past few days has been a roller-coaster and I am still trying to recover. I am running into a potential health hazard for me.  I will get sick, end up missing church services, get better, and then go back to helping out at church, get exposed once again and then end up getting sick.  My immune system is not strong enough to handle exposure to regular germs like most people.  It seems the slightest germ attacks me viciously.

On the 2nd of January, after having been healthy for about a week, I went back to church on a Wednesday to help out in our children’s program called Kings Kids.  I enjoy the program, we have on average about 80 students each week and then in my classroom we have about 10 students sometimes more sometimes less.  The class rooms are about 8’ by 10’ in my estimation.

By Friday myself and a few of my children were feeling sick and by Sunday we were a sinking ship.  Several children had fevers, one was throwing up.  Thankfully I had some medication left from a while back that my Dr. had given me to use in my Nebulizer breathing machine. I started taking some Monday and used two, Tuesday I used 3 and I had one dose left that I was going to use Wednesday evening.  I was having some difficulty breathing Wednesday evening, and took the dose that night after church.  That night sleeping was miserable.  So much coughing, having to try and stack up pillows to sit up and I was running out of my puffer inhaler.  In hindsight I see, based on having scoured the internet about Asthma episodes that my last dose of nebulizer was not having any effect because my Asthma had become so severe…I just didn’t know what was to come.

 Thursday was probably the worst day I have ever had.My breathing ability had gotten so bad that I couldn’t walk across the house without breathing heavily.  By heavily I mean like you see those people run the Boston Marathon and they cross the finish line and they bend over gasping for breath and collapse on the ground trying to get enough oxygen.  That would be me…..and then it became that way just sitting on the couch not doing anything.  I couldn’t talk to my children every word I would speak I had to stop afterwards and try and get enough air to say the next word. I have never been so scared that I was going to die as I was that day into night.

I had called my husband and told him I did not think I could make it through the weekend to get to the Dr.  I knew my situation was bad, I just didn’t know how bad…I didn’t know what the severe symptoms were to watch out for.  I am seeing an Intern Specialist(not that he is an intern…NO, he has been in practice for 25 years) not an Asthma specialist  He was able to get an appointment for Friday morning.  Now I just had to make it through Thursday evening.  I had my emergency inhaler, however, it is the only one that does not have a counter so I did not know how much was left.  The canister felt less than half full.   I was trying to not use it during the day because the night time is soooo much worse with all the coughing. I needed to go pick up pizza for the kids to eat about 3 min. from the house for dinner.  I made one of my son’s go with me and when we got in the car I told him how to call daddy on the phone in case something happened…this is how scared I was.

I used my inhaler once late in the evening prior to going to bed around 10pm.  You are supposed to use two puffs but I used one to save it for any attacks during the night.   I was able to sleep for two hours and then hit with a horrific cough attack.  I awoke at about midnight and Tim was still up working.  I went out and sat in our recliner hoping that sitting up would help and tried to lean on a pillow next to my head.  At about 2am I thought I would try again to lay down.  I had taken one more puff and the last puff from an older inhaler I had and was able to fall asleep until morning, praise the Lord.

Friday, yesterday, I went in and the nurse took my oxygen reading.  At rest the oxygen level was at 87% the normal, where it is supposed to be, is 94% minimum.  And my reading was at rest, it is only supposed to get low if you are active.  I can only imagine what my oxygen level must have been the day before when I could not breathe at all.  The Lord was truly watching over me. I should have been in the back of an ambulance heading to the  ER and them pumping me full of steroids and oxygen.

I was able to get prescriptions for my nebulizer which should last me easily two months, and prescriptions for two more inhalers.  Just in the nick of time if you ask me.  It just overwhelms me to know now how bad I was on Thursday night. It has me crying just thinking about it.  If you look at the picture below you will see this handy chart to help manage your Asthma.  You always want to be in green, that is ideal.

Then there is yellow caution, I guess if you will kind of like a traffic light.  Following next is red….you are in a serious state…and if you look below that is DANGER….this was me….If I had only seen this on Thursday, I would have done things a little differently. I can look at this now and see I have not been in the green zone yet and at least I now know what the symptoms are of the different zones and can take action immediately.  I think you only need to have one bad Asthma episode to know what a bad one is and never want to go there again.

So I am hoping I am on the way to actually managing my Asthma and in the meantime I need to make some decisions with my husband as to whether or not I should continue working in this capacity at my church and find other avenues to help minister to others.

If you would join me in praying that the Lord would continue to watch over me and keep me safe and turn this disease around so that I can have a healthy quality of life.  Thank you so much.

Journaling with your children…..

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I thought I had posted about this a while back but as I looked back in my blog I see I had missed it.  I joined Pinterest last year and it has been wonderful to be able to save pictures of ideas I would like to do with my family or meals I would like to cook.

Anyhow, one of the ideas I pinned was about a journal to do with my daughter.

                                 Source Pinterest

The idea is that you start writing back and forth to each other and have a book of memories to last a lifetime.  So back in August I got my stuff together and made my own and here are a few pictures.

 

I used one of my own fonts and printed the cover out on Microsoft Word and then went to the store and found a scrapbook paper that I liked.  I then covered the outside cover with clear contact paper and voila…..we have a wonderful journal that we keep in touch.  Now mind you we have a great relationship verbally and talk all the time.  This just supplements the open communication that we already have.  Sometimes there are concerns or questions that are just easier to write down than to express out loud.  This is just another way for us to talk and work through any thing. 

And this is not just for my daughter and I, when my boys are older I plan on doing the same thing with them as well!

I hope you try this out with your children!!

Entering the next change of life….

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I think the main thing that is on my mind and I feel lead to share with other women out there though is that I have realized this last weekend that I have started Perimenopause……

Yep, the young age of 44, 45 in October.  I knew all about Menopause, I thought, but didn’t really know anything about Perimenopause but boy have I read up on it this last weekend while away camping.

I think I have been in denial or just not wanting to acknowledge that something was happening for several months….I think at least since, November of last year.  I had just seen Dr. Oz’s new show one after noon and this was the topic of the show: Do you have Perimenopausal Rage? 

I have had some severe outbursts at my children, they come out of no where and are so extreme and are so unlike me…there has been impatience and irritability as well, the like of which I have never dealt with….I watched the show and saw, myself in the video and was astounded…there was actually something going on….It has been a hard road these last few months since my youngest was born, there are so many hormone changes that come with a newborn……

This last Thursday getting ready for camping, I lost it, I deliberately broke a plate in my kitchen by slamming it down on the counter….it was awful, it is awful every single time I have an outburst, it is a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when your children are scared of the way you look…you are just a two headed monster….I sat down crying my eyes out and went back to that video and watched it again….

I vowed that before I went camping this past weekend, I would get to the health food store and get myself some help, I need to get my body back in alignment….

It is frustrating to have all this come about so soon after the birth of my youngest and it made it so hard to separate and realize that there was something more going on…I have had the post partum feelings of no libido, just don’t even talk to me about being interested in intimacy…at least that is what my brain was saying, but my actions new better than to do that, I could not do that to my husband….

and there is also that post partum night sweating that happens….but that was at the beginning…I am actually having that again…so that is going on….Oh and lets talk about the insomnia…..my brain is just going and going and going…it just won’t shut off….  And to mix in all of this, I am up at 12am, 2am, 4am, and 6am, give or take 20-30 minutes on each one every night still….so that is not helping with my sleeping….

But when I watched the video again, I realized…AH HA!!!!  IT IS NOT ME!!!!  God is trying to get me to realize it is time to move onto my next phase of life…..so Friday I was mildly depressed as all could be…happy to find out what is going on, sad to realize that I am actually at the end of of those years of bearing children….not that I couldn’t get pregnant again in the coming years, but I had asked God to give me a sign if this was to be my last child, and this is becoming blaringly obvious that things are about to change for me….

I am so blessed to have come across the best sales lady at the health food store, it was her day off and she was there and she took the time to help a blubbering lady out who was distraught over the turn of events of her hormones and desperate to help straighten them out….

I left with a bottle of wonderful food based multivitamins that had the B complex series, the D vitamin that I need as well, the advice to take Evening Primrose Oil, which I actually happen to have had at home already from using during the end of pregnancies…that was recommended at about 1500mg 2x a day and then I could back off once I had a better control on things… I also left with progesterone cream. In addition she said to take the Fish Oil capsules that I had already at home as well. The sales lady, though said, with the evening primrose oil, I would be amazed within 3 days like a load had lifted off of my shoulders….

And here I am on Monday, feeling amazing, like this depression I have been walking around in has abated, that I am once again taking charge of my health, that I am not going to be this awful mom that my children remember.   The irritability, the edginess is gone, I just cannot explain it…I just feel somewhat back to normal!!! I cannot say how thankful I am that there was a program that I saw that made me realize that there was something else going on.  I praise God that he brought back to my attention to help me find the right direction.

The insomnia and night sweats, the lack of libido..turns out these are all symptoms of Perimenopause…it just helps to know that sometimes it is something you don’t have direct control over causing issues, it really is hormones and we need to take care to watch over them to make it safely through to the other side.

I am so ready to embrace this next phase of my life and see where the Lord will bring me, I know it is not going to be easy and may be a balancing act to get hormones in check, especially when I don’t have a doctor, but I have some great resources and by talking about it out loud with other Christian women we can all help each other have the best possible journey and still glorify the Lord.

If you have started this time of your life and have thoughts to share I would enjoy reading what has worked for you or if you have questions feel free to ask those as well!!

God Bless ya’ll~~

Our Anniversary… 10 years!!

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May 13th was our 10 year anniversary.  We decided it was time for a mini family vacation and searched high and low for a campground that would satisfy our wants and needs.  We ended up going to Riveredge Campground in Pigeon Forge, TN.

We left on a Thursday evening about 4pm, an hour earlier than we were hoping and thankful for that extra hour of daylight…we limped into the campground…with yet ANOTHER FLAT TIRE!!!  Thankfully we were less than 10 miles from the campground and we were not on a busy road and not going fast and my husband asked me to roll down my window and see if I heard the same noise….well yes, of course…we pulled into a gas station and this is what we saw…basically all the outer tread was ripped apart and barely holding on….

By the time we backed into the camping spot the outer layer of rubber had come off!!  Camping is always such an adventure!  I appreciate so much how God watches over us.

On Friday we awoke early so that we could take the children for a drive through Cates Cove.  I have never been here.  I have heard lots about it.  Tim went as a child…its an East Coast thing…  The idea is to go early in the morning or later in early evening as the wild animals come out in the meadows to feed for their meals.

The vista’s were just spectacular.  As soon as we drove into the area we saw two deer up close, literally 3 feet away.  We saw many a wild turkey with their feathers all up in a fan, which was neat to see.  We do see lots of Turkey’s here right near our house.  Of course their were squirrels..and everyone always wants to see a bear but that doesn’t happen too often…

The drive through the area is basically a one lane road and you go about 5-10 mph just so you don’t miss “anything”..whatever it may be.  The children were out of their seatbelts looking out the window’s and one of my younger son’s had been in my lap and then wanted to go back to his seat.  So he stepped to the back seat and promptly stepped on the soft water cooler that had the melted ice in it….Yep……water everywhere….we pulled over and took about 5 –7 minutes to try and clean up a mess that you have really no towels for….As we all settled down again…I had my binoculars out looking across the meadow…There are so many trees that are burned out at the bottom from lightning strikes….

I kept looking back not sure what I was seeing and told my husband to have a look…and he excitedly announces…IT’S A BEAR!!!!  What!!! So if you click on the picture and see it in the next screen at full size…look a little left of center at a huge tree in the back..there is a black spot at the base of the tree….

Well it turns out to be a MAMA BEAR and her CUB!!!!

We sat there for almost a half hour and she came out into the open and the little cub would frolic around near her. It was just delightful to be able to see a wild bear in person…Mind you we were clear across a clearing and nowhere close to it but still, just fabulous.

Later that afternoon it was back to the campground and off to the swimming pool for some fun!!

  

  

Friday evening was our 10 year anniversary.  I had purchased filet mignon and fresh prawns and we grilled these for dinner and shared a few glasses of Sparkling Cider…it was quite cozy we had dinner in the trailer and the children had baked Taquitos I had made at home outside on their lawn chairs.

 

Just a few more random shots of the children and our trailer with all the stuff 5 kids need lol…

 

As we were ready to leave on Sunday morning the fire engines came into the campground right in front of our campsite!  Talk about excitement for the children….They lifted the tall ladder way up high and out over the water/river that was on the edge of the campground.  It turns out there was some sort of rope caught up high in the tree that was dangling down into the water current and they cut it free!!

 

So on the way home we go…down the mountain..just motoring along with a lane change and WH
AM!!!  Another FLAT TIRE!!!!!  Thankfully, praise the Lord, we made it to the side of the road.  We were able to drive to the next exit and then another 15 miles to get to a tire shop.  They jacked the whole trailer up and repaired the tires…I really wanted to just get 3 new tires and be done with it so even if we had to put on a spare I would know that the spare would not fail as well….anyhow….I am hoping the next camping trip, I will not be posting that we had another flat

 

God Bless~~

What type of legacy are you going to leave……

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Well this is not what I was gong to be posting today, but through a serious of events, I have felt the Lord lead me to share some thoughts….

So how many of you are hoping to see your children married one day?  I am! How many of you look forward to being a Mother in Law?  I do!

How many of you are Mother’s in Law’s already?  What type of legacy are you leaving behind to your daughter in law should you go to heaven before she does?

I have said before and I think it bears worth repeating, that we all have the choice to be a blessing in every circumstance, we have the choice as Christians to follow God’s word in the bible…we have the choice to be encouraging, uplifting….

Are you going to leave a legacy of one who was always concerned about themselves and how the Daughter in Law didn’t do enough to please you? 

Or are you going to compromise in your thoughts and see things from the other side that may affect why something didn’t go the way you wanted it to.  Are you going to be gracious and offer grace to the woman who has born your Grandchildren?  Are you going to be gracious and offer grace to the Lady that has won your son’s heart and affections or are you going to hold a grudge that no woman or lady is good enough for your son.

Are you going to offer the first blessing instead of waiting for the blessing to come to you from a woman that hardly knows you?  Are you going to open your heart and open your arms and open your home no matter if she is a Christian or not and not sit in judgment. 

Are you going to make a point to enjoy whatever time you get to spend with your son’s new family or are you going to make life so miserable and take no accountability for losing focus of God and focusing on yourself that you make your daughter in law wish she could just end her life and not have to deal with you any more…..Are you going to leave a legacy of a loving MIL that was joyous in the Lord and always tried to be a blessing or are you going to leave a legacy of a person filled with bitterness, self-absorption, that left your daughter in law feeling she could never do anything right. Do you really want that to be her lasting memory of you…..

We all have a choice in life, to be a blessing in every circumstance even when it is not working out the ideal way we would have wished in our own mind……

God Bless~~

18 week Prego Picture….

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A new tab at the top of my blog

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Hi all,

I have been wanting to have this tab put up since I started my blog here but it has been a work in the Lord’s timing. I finally have the complete journey of my Son Corban’s birth.  So if you ever care to read the story it is there.

Thanks so much and God Bless~~~

2nd Baby Check up

Pin It March 15, 2011....16 weeks or so
Well this is going to pretty short...there isn't much to report. I went in for my visit on Tuesday...well for starters I figured out that my scale was off at home...for some reason there are two "0's" on it and I had it set to the wrong one so it was reading about 10 pounds ahead of where it should have been, which is a huge relief...so weight is normal and where it should be....I had actually lost a little about a half pound from the last visit but I have been so sick I am not surprised and still remain sick with this chest congestion. So I am at about 144 right now...which is much better than the 160 I thought I was at.

blood pressure was 90 over 60 pretty normal for me, could probably set a watch by it.

measuring...measuring 2 cm ahead now instead of 3.

Only one heartbeat was detected and it was beating pretty good so that is a blessing, it only took a second or so to find it. She moved my due date to the first week of September like the 4th.... I had two cycles prior to conception and there were 32 days in between the two...so somehow that affected the due date...I am figuring on the last week of August...these last ones, don't seem to be staying in until the last day!!

there is no update in where we will give birth as of yet and probably won't be until July.

there was discussion about my being sick so much and that part of it might be to the unfinished basement with so much dampness down there...

All in all was great....

THEN THERE WAS THIS LAST WEEKEND......March 18-20th
We went through most of the weekend and come Sunday I started worrying...you don't worry the first day because you don't realize you haven't felt the baby move...you put it off as ok, just busy...the end of the second day...you realize...I didn't feel the baby move today at all when did I last feel it..hmm that was Friday...you drink cold apple juice late Saturday evening just to see if you feel anything....still not mentioning anything to hubby.... No feeling, nothing....

I woke up Sunday, did ice-cold water and sat for a while a few times trying to get ready for church...no feeling...my nerves are on edge and I am just going through flashbacks of Corban....consistent movement and then nothing...I tell Tim, he says oh don't worry, you aren't supposed to feel it ....I said no that is not true...not when you have had consistent movement...it just doesn't stop.....it was just awful, I couldn't stop crying. We went to church and I asked for prayers from the Ladies Sunday school class.

One of the ladies went to the store and bought two large orange juice for me before the service started. I drank one full one and no movement...I asked for prayer from the whole congregation....for the baby to move...I had been more specific in the SS class and said to move again....there is a difference...I'm not just anxious to feel the baby move for the first time....I want this baby to move desperately to know it is still alive...well there were a few snickers from people behind me and I almost whipped around and gave a glower to search them out...how could they think it was a laughing matter...I didn't and it is very possible that they were not laughing at my situation but something else and it was men not women....

I was supposed to help teach children's church but I was just an emotional wreck, as it was I could barely focus on the Preacher's sermon. Church was out and Tim called our Midwife....I am so thankful that I have had the same midwife for all but one of these children...we asked if we could stop by that afternoon that there had been no movement since Friday...she was more than willing to have us come to the office. Thankfully, she only lives a block away from her office!

We went and had lunch and I all but scarfed my lunch down wanting to get to her office but I had to wait for all the children and then Tim wanted to sit there and eat some peanuts....meanwhile in my head...I was like COME ON....I just don't think Tim sometimes realizes how much these situations affect me...argghhh....if it was me I would have gone to the midwife first and then eaten lunch....but then that is a female thinking as opposed to a male...lol...still I had no movement from eating and resting in the car all the way to her office.

We drove the 40 minutes to get to her office and went in, left the children in the truck...It took about a good minute if not more but she did finally get a heartbeat...it did not seem as fast as the other times, but I have no idea...I am not wanting to know the heartbeat to be completely surprised as to what we are having.

My MW said she could feel the baby kicking or moving against the dopplar but I couldn't feel any of it.....we were all crying....all I could do on the way to her office was replay having to carry a baby again that was not alive and planning out details and wondering if this was why God had wanted my parents to come at the end of the month to help me through what might be on the way, I was only a week off from when Corban had passed on........anyhow....

the Lord is gracious and has blessed me with hearing that heartbeat. We discussed taking an extra baby aspirin so at least two a day. We concluded that the baby had probably totally changed position with the head being down and the legs bent over facing my spine so the back was towards my tummy.... This would explain no movements that I could feel and possibly why it took a little longer to hear the heartbeat etc..

We left and it was about 6:40 that evening when I finally felt the baby move when I was sitting in church services that evening and once home I felt it 3 more times...Praise the Lord....I was able to give a praise at church and explain my birth history briefly, I told about my 3 preg. then my 3 miscarriages and my loss of Corban and then my 3 more miscarriages followed up with my last two babies..so they would have a little better understanding of why prayer was so important and that it wasn't just a fleeting thing that I didn't have a great track record as for carrying to full term...

The baby has been consistently moving these last two days and I am so thankful and just praying the Lord blesses me with a little one for the full term and then some!!! :-)
anyhow…that’s all for now folks!!

We have lift off….

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Well  after doing our do diligence the night before and talking to various people and the internet, by all intents and purposes it was clearly understood that we needed to be at the park early if we wanted a parking spot close to the viewing area….

Well we came back to the campground and had spaghetti and French bread with a great salad…crockpots are wonderful for camping!!  Afterwards while everyone relaxed, I readied the food for the next day…we packed a cooler with ice and beverages, I pre-made PBJ sandwiches, I took out my Coffee cake I had made on Monday before we left, not knowing we would be leaving in the morning the day of the launch so early!!  The Lord is so awesome, He knew…and laid it on my heart to make the coffee cake….I was just thinking it would be great to have another sweet treat on the trip…HA!!!

I woke up at 6:30 that morning, got my shower and then rallied the troops we were out of there in 15 minutes!! On the way to the park, I started to worry that there would be a line of cars as I thought I had seen a sign the night before that had the park hours of 8:00am….  However, when we came around the corner there was no line and the gates were open!!

We arrived at the park and drove right in and found a great spot right on the edge of the grass!!

This was right after we arrived at about 7am.  A little cool in the morning, but those sweatshirts were soon shed after running around for a bit.  You can see how lovely the grass is and we were right there on the water…

this is the view to the left of where we were parked and there is a little golf cart there on the far left…that was right near the restroom…so lucky for us….as we found out later, this was a great location…. (The other restroom across the park had as much as a 45 minute wait at times) The restroom only had one stall and one sink but it was not a long wait at all.

Further past the restroom was a marina and we were able to see some Manatee’s in the water!!!  We had never seen any and upon further inspection in the water the children were all excited to see the crabs crawling all over the rocks and actually chasing each other over territory…it was really fun.

Our original intent was to pop the children up on top of the truck so they would be above the see of humanity that we knew would be arriving by later that day….we were told the view would be from over the bridge…the picture below shows the view to the right of where we were stationed.

there was a gentleman to our left who was by himself with a camper on his pickup, he was staying the night after the launch…he was so kind, he had a 10 x 10 canopy and he set it up so our family could enjoy some shade throughout the day!! I tell ya, that was a huge blessing!!

about 10:30 that morning, we decided to go for a walk through the town a bit to take up some time…everyone around was giving odds that we would be back in about half an hour with all the children…lol…

anyhow, we walked across the park and across the street that the bridge was on.  We saw several people on the other side of the bridge down near the water with their high powered camera’s pointed towards the launch area… we then took a walk up the bridge and came to one basic conclusion…

We were not in the right spot to watch the launch!!!  To come all this way and to see this, once in a lifetime event, you really want to see it from the very beginning not once it was part way up in the air!!

So with our new found information we decided it was best if we moved.  Well we had lunch and then the children went back to the playground…I rested!  Well it was getting on to 3pm so Myself, my daughter, my oldest son and my youngest son decided to go make the trek to the bridge…from where we were sitting you could see the people were quickly filling up the bridge and we had heard that they were going to close the bridge down to car traffic at 4PM…. Tim figured he and the other boys would come over once the bridge was closed to car traffic… 

If I had to do it over again, I would have hiked up the car portion of the bridge…but sometimes that don’t break the rules and keep safe gets a little ingrained….So up I go on the pedestrian walk way…completely lined with people those on the outside rail with their chairs and those on the low wall on the car side….with stroller and two children following behind…I would rather have had the children in front of me to see them, but then I also needed to be able to push through ask people to please excuse me…everyone was so accommodating….all but one young lady, who I was convinced had never had children, nor any desire to….the lack of empathy, compassion etc… was completely lacking and she was more concerned that I might get her toe…yet she was not willing to get up out of her sitting position on the ground either…  anyhow…ya just gotta pray for them!!!

Well we hiked and hiked and you can see in the picture up there above where I finally ended up….I probably could have gone further, but there happened to be a blank spot on the wall on the car side and I took it…parked the stroller and we sat and waited!!  There were two men and 5 children across from us…they had gotten up at 4am that morning and drove all the way down from Asheville, NC!!!  They took the kids out of school and drove down and did the homework on the way!! 

it was just amazing being around all these people.  You could hear so many foreign languages around you and there was excitement in the air.  We were out in the hot sun and our right side was getting a little bit singed….thankfully about 4:30 Tim arrived, I was wondering if we were going to be able to meet up….with all these people I wasn’t sure he would find us.

My husband was great, he brought our huge umbrella….wow, what a relief that was…not quite appreciated by those around us…but we did put it down once it got close.  He brought drinks and more sunblock!!  Anticipation was getting high..the scheduled launch was for 4:50pm…and I had seen that they only have a few minutes for the “scheduled window” of launch time and it was to close at 4:55pm!!

You can see the little wall we were sitting on, the barrier protecting the pedestrians that would be walking by in front of us…if you could ….lol…

That little island right above my husbands head, right in the center of that island is where the shuttle launched up …not on that island but beyond the island…just right in between the trees.

Here are some pictures of the crowds….This was down the bridge to our right the way I walked up, the hotel grass was all covered and then down below near the water there was a pedestrian walkway under the bridge for a short while that was also all packed full of people.

This picture below was one of the other viewing sites we had looked at the night before…all that area to the left of the hotel is full of people and mostly press…there were no restrooms there or play area!!

this next picture is looking up the bridge….

This picture is behind me showing where we had parked the car….

And then finally it was 4:50….and no launch….arrghhh…. and about two minutes go by and someone, one of numerous people who had radio’s and phone’s and all kinds of paraphernalia, yells out 6 Seconds!!!!

Wow, in the blink of an eye, it was going…even now as I type it I get all emotional and start crying….it was just so spectacular to see….to be a part of history like that…to hear the roar of the fuel tanks, to see those first blasts of clouds come up and then all of a sudden to see that huge huge huge flame coming out the base and to see the shuttle making its way up into space…

I was having a hard time not bawling and it only took a minute to go from lift off, those first clouds of smoke to being barely able to see it when the external tanks came off…  and at that point, when the tanks released,…there was a huge round of applause everywhere.  And having witnessed two space missions explode on TV….it was all I could do not to bowl even harder because it was just a signal to all of us…it was successful….it was going to make it, there was not going to be an accident, we would not be witnessing tragedy but something triumphant….  it was really special and I am so thankful we were able to make it down and to see it from where we did!!! I don’t think I’ll forget that!

These pictures are all small but if you click on them you can see them full size on another page.

From the very first burst of smoke….

  

 

 

 

 

So it only took one minute to get through all of that and that last picture you can’t even see it on film but that is when the external tanks came off.

Mind you this is the abbreviated version of my pictures…. I think I have about 40 of them…lol… I’ll post next about the rest of the trip!