Serenade

I am pretty sure this is not what the songwriters of these songs had in mind when they penned their songs, but it's pretty darn cute nonetheless!

**And yes, I am videoing while driving. No I am not looking at the camera. Yes one hand is off the wheel. Yes, it is raining. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, and we fared just fine.**

Thursday's Thought About....Summer

I love summer. It is by far my most favorite season. There is hardly a thing about summer that I don't like. Ridiculously hot days, cookouts, swimming, amusement parks, the list goes on and on. One of my most favorite things about summer is going to the beach. Or in my case, living vicariously through co-workers who have gone to the beach. Because the beach to me means 2 things....relaxation and salt water taffy.

Outisde of my everyday go to favorite, a Hershey's chocolate bar and my Easter seasonal Cadbury creme eggs, salt water taffy is my most favorite candy. I love the fantastic flavors, the bright colors, and the memories eating a piece always brings back to mind. Being a taffy lover, I feel that over 30 years I have also become a taffy conissieur. In my opinion, if the salt water taffy didn't come from a beachside gift shop or Disney Theme Park, it is NO GOOD. I can back up this subjective statement by saying that on the few occasions I have purchased taffy from our local grocery stores, it has always been jawbreaker hard and virtually void of flavor. I have purchased boxes from other theme parks with disappointing results.

Sadly, I have not been to the beach in a long time, so have not had the opportunity to purchase my own. Happily, though, lots of my co-workers have gone to the beach this summer and have brought home taffy to share with the group. Today I found another stash of taffy in a co-worker's office that I don't normally visit. What a blessing to me, that little discovery turned a rather sour, gloomy day around with bright oranges, pinks, and blues. Now I think I can make it through the rest of the day!

Escape from Ruby Hospital

Thank you to all of you who continue to pray for Ralph and his healing. Yesterday evening we went to the hospital and broke him out of his room! Actually, the doctors had signed his release, so no laws were broken :). Ralph continues to do well. His arm continues to heal, although it is a very slow process. He is being sent home to rest and recuperate. He will have to come back to Morgantown (about 2.5 hours away from his home) once a week for a check on his arm before they do shoulder surgery. He WILL have the surgery to repair his shoulder, but right now we aren't really sure when that will be. Please continue to pray for his healing and pain management.

While we were in the hospital, Morgan continued to be her charming little self. She went running toward Patrick when he arrived at the "Hos-ih-pal!" as Morgan says and said in her not so quiet toddler voice "I LUB you Daddy", to which every nurse in the vacinity did a group "Awwww!" Patrick and I chuckled.

We had a very nice man driving the wheelchair out of the hospital. He let Morgan help him, and she was thrilled! She kept saying "Grandpa Ral-puh is going home from the hos-ih-pal." She gave lots of kisses before everyone left for the journey home.

For now, we are all thrilled that he got to go home, and I am sure that everyone slept well last night in their own beds (or recliner in Ralph's case).

Picture Proof

Here's picture proof that Morgan was on the big screen at PNC Park! This was her second time on the big screen (since I wasn't expecting it on her real birthday, I didn't get any pictures). I am going to try to get her to sing "Take me out to the ball game" on video. It's so stinkin' cute! She knows all the words and belts them out at the top of her lungs!

Ralph update and somc cute pictures

Today we took another trip back to see Ralph. Patrick stayed with him last night and posted an update. Today, Ralph looks so much better. He is still in terrible pain some times, and his blood pressure, which was stable last night, has been fluctuating terribly today. When I got here, his heart rate was steady at 80s. Now it is has been over 100 for the past two hours. His blood pressure is currently 171/65. A "good" blood pressure is 130/80. He has an arterial line in that constantly monitors his blood pressure and pulse. He did have his foley (urine catheter) removed, so that is one step to going home. His has been in atrial fibrulation most of the day, so the doctors have added Digoxyn to his regimin.

The doctor stopped in today and gave us a new plan of action. Tomorrow the orthopedic surgeon is going to come in and assess Ralph's arm. It must be healing well before they can do surgery. If the surgeon plans to do shoulder surgery this week, Ralph will stay in the hospital until after he recovers from surgery. If the surgeon decides that his arm needs to heal more, they will send him home to rest and heal there. Either way, we are hopeful that Ralph's stay in the hospital is coming to an end.

He was excited to see his babies today. They came in and gave him lots of kisses.

Julia was curious about his nasal cannula, Morgan was just interested in playing with the window :)

Amy, Chris, and Julia stayed for about two hours. Ralph's color and demeanor really picked up once we arrived. The girls managed to keep him entertained while Patrick took a break from the room.

This is Amy feeding Ralph a smuggled in chili dog from Sheetz.

Around 4:00 our awesome nurse Sonja came in to change Ralph's arm dressing. It is certainly a three person job! While the bandages were removed, I took the opportunity to take some pictures, since Ralph has been asking to see how bad his arm is. Below are the pictures. I was surprised at how good the arm looked. So much better than I ever thought it would be. It took us about 30 minutes for 3 people to change his arm. At one point poor Ralph had a bandage stuck to one of his biggest wounds and when we removed the bandage, he blanched the pain was so bad. We did get him wrapped up and settled back down with new dressings and some fantastic pain meds. :)



Of course, no post would be complete without pictures of the girls. They kept everyone entertained and have been so very good considering they have been in a hospital room with no toys! Morgan has been here 7 hours and has only had one meltdown. I am so proud of her.

Are they camera hams or what?!?!

Morgan decided it was time for a silly face!

One exciting thing from this past week, Amy and Chris found out that their second child is going to be a BOY!!! While the family is having a hard time transitioning from all pink to blues and greens, we are so very excited. Janet (my MIL) and I have been shopping fools since Friday afternoon!

Julia and Morgan giving baby Cole a kiss (isn't this so adorable!!!)

Grandpa Ralph Update

I have finally arrived home from NYC to see my grandfather. I had to be in NYC this week for work to become an ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) trainer. This is a training that I have been looking forward to for quite some time. This was also my first trip to NYC, and if any of you read the post from my wife about our anniversary you may have figured out that big cities are not exactly my thing. Althought I did enjoy NYC, my week was definitly hampered by fears for my Grandfather. Many of you may or may not know that I am very very close to my Grandpa. We have always shared a very special bond. When Jen called me Monday to let me know that Grandpa had fallen, I was immediatly overcome with grief and a feeling of guilt that I could not be there for him. I would like to thank the trainers from ASIST and my good friend Mark, who were very supportive, and listened to me vent my feelings of fear, frustration, and guilt of having to be away from home. I arrived in Morgantown about 4:oopm this afternoon, and after a short stop over at the house headed straight to the hospital. I had already had a call from my Dad this morning telling me that Grandpa was really down, and wasn't eating, and that he was looking forward to seeing me. I also had two phone calls from my sister Amy asking where I was at in my travels today. Upon walking into the hospital room, and announcing that I had finally arrived I got to see my Grandfather's mood lighten, and he started to tear up, which of course made me tear up as well. Over the years I have spent a lot of time setting by my Grandpa's bed while he has been in the hosptial. Sometimes we set and talk for hours, and other times we just simply set. I have always hated for him to be alone, so I have always liked staying with him, which has stengthened our bond over the years. Grandpa is doing much better, he has been setting up in the chair today. I arrived in time to help change the dressings on his arm. His arm looks pretty good. The picture that I had in my mind was possibly the worst possible image, so getting to see the damage, and seeing that it wasn't as bad as I had pictured made me feel better. His blood pressure has been doing well all day, but his heart rate is still around the 115 to 120 mark. the doctor has said that he can go home to rest when his resting heart rate goes down between 60 to 70. They did not get to do his surgery on Thursday, for frustrating reasons that I won't go into right know for fear that I will get angry all over again. He is tolerating the pain very well, and it has been controlled by Ibuprofine until he was moved around a lot this evening to get his dressing and clothes changed. The nurse said that she would order him something a little speacial to help releive the pain and to help him sleep. Thank god she has a since of humor and laughed when I asked if she could order enough for two and didn't call the cops. The plan is to give the abrasions on his arms two weeks to heal and then do his surgery. As I was setting here this evening listening to him joke with my sister, brother in law, and myself, I was thinking that I was wonderful that my presence was all it took to lift his mood. While the presence of me and my sister almost certainly helped. I was a little disapointed to find out that they had started him on an anti-depressant. Thank you all for your prayers.

A new update on Ralph

Things went from bad to worse to disasterous back to worse and now.....well now we are in the calm between the storms.

Ralph was finally stabilized enough to be life flighted from Webster Springs a little after 4:00. They made it to Clarksburg, WV before having to be grounded due to the horrendous thunder/lightning/monsoon rain storm we had in Morgantown. The weather was worse than I have seen it in months. From Clarksburg the EMTs loaded him into a speeding ambulance, which then had to brave not only the weather, but other cars on the road as they sped the last 45 miles to Morgantown.

Morgan and I arrived at Ruby Memorial Hospital at 5:00 on the dot, even before Ralph got there. The kind admin person at the front desk kept me informed as to where he was. For 45 minutes I waited and tried to keep Morgan entertained. As soon as he got there I knew...the hospital loud speakers announced the ambulance from Clarksburg with a Medic Life patient on board. As soon as I stood up the admin clerk was already on the phone, nodding to me that it was him. I was texting three different people at once (but one at a time, not all together, so my fingers were flying). He spent 5 minutes in the ER and when I asked to go see him I was told he was going immediately into a CT scan.

Then the waiting game began.

Ralph's wife June, his daughter Lola, and nephew and niece arrived just before 6:00. I had just tried to see if Ralph was back in the ER and was told he was not. June was met at the front of the hospital by a pastoral counselor, who led them back to the ER and left them with me while he found out exactly what was going on. We were told he was being moved to a room in the Medical ICU on the 5th floor. When the doors to the elevator opened on 3, where we were getting on, Ralph's son (my FIL) and my MIL were on the elevator! I had just texted them that Ralph was being moved and it happened that they had just stepped into the elevators on the first floor!

We waited. And waited, and waited. Finally around 8:00 the nurse came by to say that his room was not ready on 5 and Ralph was still in the ER, waiting on a bed. June, Charlie, and Lola went down to see him. When they returned, the look of relief was overwhelming. They reported that he looked good, wasn't complaining too much about pain, and was alert and responding to them.

Morgan and I got a chance to go in and see him around 9:00. The entire walk in I was thanking God for listening and answering our prayers. Ralph DID look good. He has a fantastic shiner over his right eye. His right arm was bandaged, and the bandages were soaked red with blood. I am sure that will be a long time healing. He talked to us, joked with Morgan, and begged for a kiss from her before she finally relented (I think seeing him like that with all the tubes and wires scared her, just like it did when she went to see Ellen in the hospital).

Now that he is relatively stable, we have a "plan" for the next few days. Ralph did indeed break his shoulder into 5 pieces. If he remains stable (blood pressure, etc) over the next few days, on Thursday he'll get a partial shoulder replacement for his 80th birthday! We are certainly not out of the woods, as anything can go wrong at any moment, but I feel better now that I have seen him and we have a plan. And at 9:30 I finally sat down and let the exhaustion come. And boy did it ever. I am not sure who is staying where, as I have room for June, Charlie, and Janet to stay here. Of course one or some of them will stay at the hospital. I have made beds, pushed clutter out of the way, and I am heading to bed myself.

Thank you for your prayers for him so far. God heard you! Please keep him in your prayers. We are not out of the scary woods yet. Also, please pray for another precious family we met while sitting in the waiting area. A young mother of a 7 day old, 5 lb 7 oz baby girl is in MICU fighting for her life. I can't imagine the fear and heartache they must be feeling. They have spent every night sleeping on the floor of the waiting room since the baby's birth. Please pray for the mom, pray for the family, and pray that a room would open up for them to stay at the hospital.

Our family covets your prayers. Thank you so much.

Please Pray for Grandpa Ralph

**UPDATE** Ralph's blood pressure dropped to 60/30. They couldn't stabilize him to go by ambulance. He is being life flighted to Ruby Memorial Hospital. They took off at 3:50 and should land in Morgantown any moment. I am going straight to the hospital now. PLEASE PRAY...this is worse than we thought.



Please if you would say a prayer for Patrick's Grandpa Ralph. He fell today outside head first over a steep embankment. He broke his right shoulder in at least 4 places, tore the skin off almost the entire lower half of his right arm, and hit his head hard (he has a huge goose egg). He is conscious and talking, but he's in a lot of pain and is allergic to morphine, so they are trying to find a combination of pain meds that will help him. He's being rushed by ambulance to Morgantown for emergency surgery.

Ralph's 80th birthday is Thursday. Patrick is in NYC and cannot come home. We are trying to see the best light in this that everything is going to be OK. Honestly I worry that he won't be able to handle the anaesthesia for surgery as he is not in good health. That's all I know at this point, until they get here. I'll update again when I can.

Six

Six. Just a number really, but a special one today. Six years ago today Patrick and I became husband and wife. After over five years of courtship, we started writing a new chapter in our book. Rather than recount what has happened since, I'd like to review how we got there :)

August 1997 Patrick and I were both freshmen at West Virginia University. I was living in the honors dorm, Patrick had a trailer of his own off campus. I had moved from Belgium and knew two people at school. Patrick was born and raised in WV, and many of his high school classmates had come to WVU with him. Two totally different worlds, yet destined to meet.

My freshman year roommate was a sweet soul, Jessica Rose. Jessica had been valedictorian at Braxton County High School. The same school Patrick graduated from. All through August and into the beginning of September Jessica kept talking about a guy from her high school that she really liked. She told me she had a huge crush on this guy for a long time, but that he was clueless about her feelings. She'd mentioned that she had run into him in the Mountainlair (our student union) a few times, and would I mind if he came up to our room. Of course I said I didn't mind, as I was anxious to put a face to a name. One day in September, Patrick walked through our dorm room and into my life.

At first, I merely regarded Patrick as a cute guy that my roommate really liked. As the fall semester wore on life went on...Patrick was over once in a while, but not too often. He started coming around more, but Jessica kept talking about him only liking her as a friend and maybe she didn't have feelings for him anymore. I was a little confused, but dealing with severe homesickness and an 18 credit-hour semester, I just thought I had missed something. And the more Patrick was around, the more I started to like him. However, he was off limits since Jessica cared for him.

We went to our honors winter formal, Patrick and five women (Jessica, me, our friends Brandy, Crystal, and Mavis). Just before Christmas break, Jessica said she thought she was totally over Patrick. When I returned to school in January, she confirmed that she didn't like Patrick anymore. And it seems overnight that Patrick and I really started to like each other.

Valentine's Day 1998 was our first real "date". Patrick set up an indoor picnic with candlelight, a picnic blanket, and take-out food from my favorite Italian restaurant. It was awesome. After dinner we had our first dance, in the middle of the trailer living room that would one day become our first home. Our first dance was to Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply. Those words are engraved on Patrick's wedding ring.

We became an official couple March 4, 1998 (my brother's 18th birthday). Two months later I hopped on a plane and went home to Belgium for the summer. It was our first long-distance relationship, but not the last. We continued to date through the rest of college. I went off to Boston for graduate school in 2001, still dating Patrick, but wondering where it was all going. Thankfully Patrick answered my silent questions on March 14, 2002 when he asked me to marry him (again in the middle of the trailer's living room!). Sixteen months later, and six years ago today, we were joined before God and our families as husband and wife.

We've gotten many calls today from our families wishing us well. We got lots of beautiful cards. One in particular really touched me, and is a good reminder to all couples.

How to Celebrate a Beautiful Anniversary

Recall the years you've spent together, making a home, building a life.

Each year is a unique blend of ups and downs, fresh starts, and happy endings.

Replay the memories. Retell the stories.

Reaffirm the friendship at the heart of your romance.

To be loved for who you are is a rare gift.

Hold hands. Laugh a lot. No matter how busy life is, make time for togetherness.

Reflect upon the lessons time has taught you.

The importance of patience, the art of compromise.

The healing power of forgiveness.

Marriage takes effort and giving with your whole hearts.

Be proud of what you have together.

Renew your commitment knowing that a good marriage is a lifetime of "I do's".

Savor the privilege of being companions on life's journey.

Daydream about all that's still to come.

In this great big world, you each found just the right person to love, just the right person to love you.

And you get the spend the rest of your life with that special someone.

On your anniversary, and every day of your marriage, remember how lucky you are...and be happy.

So today I remember where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. Together, through the ups and the downs. With love to tie us together and God to lead us on. And with that, I will leave you with some pictures of that day six years ago. And a genuine I Love You to my husband, my friend. Happy Anniversary Patrick.

**these are photographs of our album, so excuse the not perfect quality**

Fourth of July Recap--The Grand Finale

At long last, after hours of fun and waiting, A Capitol Fourth started. It was broadcast live on PBS stations around the country. Now that I know about it, we'll probably try to catch the show every year we are not actually there.

Everyone was excited. With a lot of stars coming out to perform, the crowd around the Capitol just pulsed with an amazing energy. When Aretha Franklin came out and sang the Star Spangled Banner, you could cut the silence with a knife. She did a beautiful job.

Jimmy Smits was the host for the evening. I really haven't seen him in many things recently, but I am sure that most of you will remember the tear-jerking episode of NYPD Blue when he died. Although I questioned his wardrobe manager for putting him in a PURPLE shirt and tie, he was great to listen to.

Then, the moment my mother had been waiting for, waiting 36 years in fact. Her favorite singer of all time hit the stage.

Barry Manilow opened the show with a great performance. I need to explain a little about why my mother had waited 36 years for this moment. Mutti has, in the past, seen Barry Manilow perform live three times. What is important about the story is that my father was supposed to accompany her to those shows, but would suddenly be sent TDY somewhere the week or days before the show. In 36 plus years of marriage, Dad had escaped Barry Manilow. Until July 4, 2009. And this is what he thought of the performance!

I enjoyed his performance, having grown up on Barry Manilow, as his music was frequently heard in our house. His performance of Copacabana was great and really the entire reason I wanted to see him.

After his performance, we all were treated to a birthday party celebration for the muppets of Sesame Street. Sesame Street turns 40 years old this year. I actually woke Morgan up from her little nap so she could see Big Bird, Memo (Elmo), Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, and a few other muppets. Even though she was annoyed that I woke her up, she smiled great big when she saw Memo and Big Bird.

This is Big Bird talking with the conductor of the National Symphany Orchestra.

After singing along to some classic childhood tunes, including I Love Trash and C is for Cookie, another popular performer hit the stage to sing along with the Sesame Street gang.

Of course Natasha sang her famous Pocket Full of Sunshine and a few other tunes. I have to say that I am a little out of touch with the more popular music, as I don't listen to the current rock station on Sirius.

We were also treated to a wonderful performance by the cast of The Jersey Boys, after which Patrick and I immediately said we would have to see when it comes back to Pittsburgh/Morgantown. Michael Feinstein (on left) and Andrew von Oeyen (blonde on right) played piano together, which was lovely.

The Queen of Soul hit the stage again to sing some of her classics, including Respect which was great. If you look at her outfit you will see that she is wearing a fur cuffed jacket. In the middle of summer. Why, I do not know.

Barry Manilow came back out one more time to close the vocal performance piece, and as he finished, the fireworks started over the Washington Monument.

The fireworks were spectacular. It was awesome to spend America's 233rd birthday in the heart of our nation. I encourage you, if you have never gone before, GO. It's certainly something every American should experience at least once in their lifetime.

And at the end of the night, you will have crazy hair, be tired and worn out, but you too will still be waving your flag, proud to be an American.

Fourth of July Recap--Phase 3

Since we got to the Capitol grounds around 3:15 and the concert didn't start until 8:00, we had a LOT of time to kill. But never fear, we found plenty of things to do while we waited.


Here are pictures of us showing our American pride:

We were close to the First Aid station, and I was alerted to the fact that they had their second "customer" of the day. I thought it was serious when I saw this:

It turns out that this man had sunscreen in his eye! I am still not sure why on earth they had him lay on a stretcher for them to put saline solution in his eye...oh the drama.

Patrick was the only one who took a nap:

(which probably isn't too advisable around our crew!!)

We got a pretty good family photo of the Tenneys (and for those of you who are getting Christmas cards from us this year, you'll most likely see this picture again!).

Morgan got a little restless, so we took her out to the reflecting pool so she could "dip her toes in". At least that's what she told me she wanted to do! I think this picture is just precious.

Patrick wanted me to take this picture to prove to Cecelia that there was, indeed, an empty parking spot near the Capitol and he COULD have driven down to find a spot! :)

This is my mother, pretending to be a squirrel (she was egged on by Cecelia). She should have known it would show up on the world wide web when she allowed photographic proof of her antics!

We finally got word that my Dad had met up with our dear friends Pierre and Jeannine Delzenne. They came from Belgium to spend the 4th of July holiday in Washington DC with our family. We met them in 1995 while we lived overseas, and they have become part of our family.

This was the first time Morgan got to meet Pierre and Jeanninou. She was a typical toddler and took a little while to warm up to them.

(above, Pierre, Morgan, Pasquale--Pierre's neighbor, Bruce--Pierre's friend, and Jeanninou)


Morgan finally did get comfortable around them. Enough to give Jeanninou a big hug, and sit on Pierre's lap.


We all had a great time catching up with them. I had not seen Jeanninou since our wedding nearly 6 years ago, and I had not seen Pierre since Jeff's wedding 4 years ago.

The time flew by after the arrived, and then it was time for the show!

Up next...the concert and the grand finale.