The Fourth of July 2012 - the best one ever!

We had an incredible 4th of July.  Erick's brother, Denis, was stationed at Tyndall AFB in Florida.  He and his wife, Lisa, were getting ready to move to Ohio so it was decided that we would have one last hurrah with them before their move.  Erick's parents were coming for a visit, so it worked out perfectly.

On the 4th, it rained most of the morning, so after a yummy breakfast and lunch we took naps and then headed to the beach that afternoon.  After all the rain, it was a beautiful cool evening - perfect weather, really.  We played in the ocean, collected sea shells and watched as Erick's mom, grandpa, Erick and Denis parasailed.  Soon it was time for fireworks.  We sat there, on the beach, listening to the tide coming in and out from shore and watched as the fireworks sprang up all around us.  First among other beach goers, then the ones on the pier at Mexico Beach, then you could see the fire works set off at Panama City Beach, and also in the other direction at the next town over further east.  THE entire shoreline was lined with fireworks....it was breathtaking. 
    

Utah

SO this post comes 6 months after the fact - but I FINALLY made it to Utah.  It has been a running joke in my family that my non-member grandparents were more Mormon than I was as they had not only been through Temple Square/Visitors Center right there in Salt Lake, they have stopped along the Mormon trail in their travels and specifically went to Kearney, Nebraska to see a handcart reenactment.

Erick's sister, Katrina, was getting sealed in the Manti temple and we were determined to go.  Erick's teaching schedule for SOS would only allow us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - but that would be enough.  We awoke Friday morning with plenty of time to make it to the airport.  However, there was a massive storm blowing through Montgomery and Alabama's bad drivers were, for some reason or another out in droves at 5:30 in the morning.  We arrived for our 6:40 departure time at 6:05.  They would not board us.  So we sat in that teeny tiny airport waiting for a new flight.  We were booked on the next fight, which was scheduled to leave at 11:00, but bad weather delayed this plane and we didn't leave Montgomery until almost 1PM.

We arrived in Dallas just as our connecting flight left for Salt Lake, so we were back to waiting.  Thank goodness for USO's.  I must also take some time out and give super praise to Elise.  She was all smiles this whole time.  Finally at 7PM we jumped on a flight to Salt Lake and landed there a little after 9.

The first thing that struck me, driving at night through Salt Lake, was how many temples there were in the 10 miles we drove to our hotel.  They were EVERYWHERE.  The next morning when we walked out of our hotel I was astonished that there were mountains RIGHT THERE.  How did I miss those???  All the way to Manti I tried to keep track of how many church buildings I saw and how many temples, but there were just too many.  I loved going into Wal-Mart and seeing all the LDS materials right there in an aisle of their own.  I really felt like I was in a totally different world.

The wedding was great, the weather was wonderful.  We went to the reception that night, and then the next morning Erick, Elise and I had breakfast with Erick's oldest brother, Dave and his girlfriend at the Grand American in Downtown Salt Lake.  We then went over to watch Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle where Sister Dalton just happened to be in attendance.  I actually got to go up and meet her and then we did a quick tour of Temple Square and the Conference Center before catching our flight back home to Montgomery.

It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it.  

Long time, no write

So I have decided that I am going to be a better blogger. The reasons behind this decision are completely self-serving. As I'm sure very few are actually interested in the minute details of our lives, I am striving to become a better blogger because I'm a terrible journal keeper....and I feel like typing my thoughts and the every day awesomeness of our lives is much easier than handwriting them in a diary. I was inspired to become a better blogger over this July 4th holiday. My sister in law compiled all of her blog entries into an awesome book for posterity sake using blurb.com. I have been dong something similar with photo books, but as I am missing those maybe not so photo worthy, but just as precious moments I decided that I should re-commit myself to recording those aspects of our life as a family. If you decide to read along, you are more than welcome.

 I suppose I should start by catching up. Elise is now 2 years old and is the absolute joy of our lives. She has such a great personality - always happy, always singing, dancing, and so extremely thoughtful. Erick left shortly after her 1st birthday for Iraq. It was tough going there for a while, but he was able to come home early (right before Christmas) and we were just so happy to be a family again. While he was gone, Elise learned how to stand and walk...and talk. She also became quite proficient at using the iPad and the iPhone and would constantly try to Skype with Erick. One day we were sitting in Sunday School at church and our home teacher Brother Patrick watched her open the skye app, scroll to Erick and then push the video chat button. Bro. Patrick was so moved by this one year old's determination to talk to her daddy that he started crying. Thinking on it now, I tear up...it became so apparent to me during that time apart how important it is to have both parents in the home. Obviously with Erick being in the military, it's not possible for that to always happen. However, Elise just knew...even at 1, that something was different. She slept with me most of the time while he was gone...she wouldn't sleep otherwise - this coming from a girl who slept through the night on her own at 6 weeks. She just knew and she and I made a pretty good team, but we both needed that extra support that only a husband and father can provide. After Erick came home, we jumped on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas and took a well deserved vacation. We had so much fun. Elise partied like a rock star...much to our surprise. Maybe she was just so stoked for daddy to be home, but she just really turned into a character on that boat. She stayed up late, climbed up and down the stairs, dragged us up to the top deck and ran to the pizza place for a midnight snack. She also discovered her love of the beach on that cruise. Castaway Cay was so gorgeous and Elise spent the whole day playing in the sand.

I have since posted the unpublished posts that cover these adventures in more detail, so some of that may be a bit redundant....all the more reason for me to be more committed to my blog.  Stay tuned for a blog about my first trip to Utah and our July 4th holiday!  

The Disney Cruise

This post SHOULD have been written months ago, but I am writing it now because I have neglected my blog for far too long. I just posted three unpublished posts because for some reason or another, I never got around to pushing the "Publish" button...how unbelievably sad is that?

Anyway, as stated at the end of my last post, we went on a Disney Cruise in February. THis was something ERick and I had wanted to do for a LONG time. Erick had never been on a cruise - I had. I went on a Carnival Cruise for my Senior trip in high school and I was not that impressed. It was a booze cruise - and while I'm sure that the activities on those types of cruises are fine for the Over 21 and drinking crowd, there's something about wet t-shirt contests and jello shots that make me feel a little out of place as a good little Mormon girl.

 While a Disney cruise appealed to me far more than a Carnival or even Royal Caribbean cruise, I still had my reservations. I had gotten sea sick last time and while our stateroom was one of the nicer ones, it was small...and I'm claustrophobic. Still, I looked forward to the experience. Right away, there was a difference in quality and level of service as we entered the loading facility. Trademark Disney greetings were found everywhere we went. Even the security guards were pleasant. Disney is quite organized with their passenger loading - we arrived and were given a Boarding number which was called out shortly after we finished checking in. We had lunch on the top deck of the ship (Cabanas, how I miss you!) and had a wonderful view of the Kennedy Space Center there at Port Canaveral. After lunch, our room was ready - we entered our stateroom, went to the lifeboat drill and then partied as we sailed away. We had dinner that night at the Royal Palace, followed by a meet and greet with various Disney characters and then a show called the Golden Mickeys in the Walt Disney Theater.

 The next day we arrived in Nassau. The forecast called for rain and so our original shore excursion (a submarine tour of the reef and harbor and a carriage ride through the streets of Nassau) was cancelled. We ended up booking a last minute Glass Bottom boat tour. While it wasn't a submarine, it was still pretty neat. The water was SO clear and we could see fish and coral reefs - it was beautiful. On the way back to the harbor, Elise danced to calypso music. We did a quick stroll through the shops before getting back on the boat and enjoying lunch. We changed into our swim suits - it was a cold day so there wasn't much swimming, but we did spend some time in Nemo's Reef with Elise and Erick did take a ride on the Aqua Duck. That night we ate at Animator's Palate. I enjoyed that restaurant more for the show than the food.

 The next morning we were in Castaway Cay - Disney's Private Island. I recommend a Disney cruise JUST for this island. It was AMAZING. Pristine beaches, beautiful water, a water slide that goes right into the ocean. They do a morning 5K run around the island, we rode bikes, we ate BBQ at Cookies (the red snapper was DELICIOUS!) and we laid around in hammocks. It was perfect. The day was gorgeous, the water was blue, and I got a massage at the end of our beach day. Marvelous. When we got back to our stateroom after our fun day the beach, our pirate bandanas were waiting for us. This was my absolute favorite night of the cruise. We had a pirate themed dinner at the Enchanted Garden (best food of the whole cruise), a pirate party after dinner complete with fireworks. Elise LOVED it. She was going strong all night. She danced, and danced and danced some more. We bought her a lightsaber for the pirate party and she wielded that thing like a pro. It was seriously the most fun we had had as a family ever. Not even exaggerating a little bit there. We had a blast.

The last day of our cruise was a sea day. All day we sailed the deep blue and enjoyed a little more of what the ship had to offer. We were Midship detectives - the picture frames on the ship interact with cards that you get at the detective agency booth. We roamed the ship in search of stolen art - way fun. We played minature golf and we watched Baby races. The shows, the characters, amenities, everything about this cruise was special. Disney goes above and beyond for their guests and we were extremely happy with this vacation. We were so thrilled, we became Disney Vacation Club Members and spent the night at Animal Kingdom almost as soon as we got off the boat.  It was well worth the money. We can't wait to do another one.

Me and my Super Kidney

Okay so it's not super per se, but I've got a kidney with a double collection chamber - apparently. While THAT is not quite interesting the story of how I came to find out a had a double duty kidney makes for some serious soap opera-esque drama.

It all began when I ran 10 miles training for the Montgomery half-marathon. After I finished I started having major issues with my bladder. As silly as that sounds - it's totally true and was very annoying. I, who even when pregnant had no problems with leakage was suddenly seriously considering an investment in Depends the next time I visited the commissary. After several days of having these issues, I went to the doctor to see if I could have possibly stressed out my bladder with all of my running or if it might be the onset of a UTI. They took me in for a urinalysis and when the doctor came back in he told me he had absolutely no idea what was wrong with me and asked me to diagnose myself.

Now this may surprise some of you non-military folks out there, but based on my experience with military doctors, this irritated, but did not shock me. I told him I had no idea what was wrong which was why I came in - "Could I have stressed out my bladder with running? Could I be getting a UTI?" His answer: "Hmmm....well there was a little blood in your urine, I'll give you some antibiotics and we'll check you again next week." Not at all satisfied with this diagnosis, I went home feeling like I was exactly where I was when I started out this morning, except now I had antibiotics for a UTI, I may or may not have. I finished the antibiotics, had a visit from my Aunt Ruby and then went in to do another urinalysis. Not hearing anything for a few days, I decided to ask at my scheduled Pap about my test results.

 This is where it gets interesting. I saw another doctor for my pap and when she asked me about spotting between periods, I answered in the affirmitive as I always spot during ovulation....especially since having a baby. No big deal - all of my other gynocologists including the one who delivered Elise have told me "You're a bleeder." When I asked her if my urianlysis results were back she suddenly panicked and said "There's blood in your urine AND you are spotting??? There's something SERIOUSLY wrong with you." Now let me just interject here that I am a nervous person by nature. I have spent many years combating my anxiety and I have managed to keep it under control through exercise, decluttering my life, and staying away from things like caffeine that just add fuel to the fire. The statement made by the doctor - while my husband is deployed, my family is 14 hours away and my daughter is only a year old, unnerved me just a tad. She tested me for STDs, did blood tests, more urinalysis and scheduled an ultra sound of my kidney, bladder and ovaries.

Not only were all of these tests and subsequent results scheduled weeks apart, they pulled me off of exercise so I had no outlet for my stress and anxiety. After I don't know how many pee in a cup tests that came back abnormal and blood tests which came back normal, I finally had my ultrasound. The technician couldn't tell me anything, of course, but he did go over my left kidney more extensively than the right....meaning that he had me turn on my side when examining my left where he didnt ask me to do so on the right. He told me that if they found anything that needed to be taken care of immediately they would call me Monday (this was a Friday) at the latest, Wednesday for anything abnormal. I got a call Thursday morning. The conversation went something like this:

Nurse: Ms. Clayson, do you have an appointment scheduled with the urologist yet?
Me: No, I was told at my last appointment that I needed to wait for the referral from Tricare - they told me if it was super serious they would have already made me an appointment.
Nurse: Yes, that's true. There is an abnormality on your kidney.
 Me: (Anxiety mounting) What is it, what's wrong?
 Nurse: You appear to have a dual collection chamber in your left kidney.
Me: Is that serious? What does that mean?
Nurse: Oh, no nothing serious, just unusual. Just thought you might like to share that with the urologist.

Now, here I am almost a year later finishing this blog I never posted. After this, I breathed a much needed sigh of relief, but all of that stress and anxiety took it's toll on my body. You're stressed enough when your spouse is deployed...moreso when you have children (no matter how good they are - being a single parent is TOUGH). Add to that stress worries about your own health and well being and fears of your child's well being should something happen to you or your spouse while he is deployed and it makes for a very nasty nasty situation. I lost almost 30 pounds in less than 2 months. I went home to PA for a reprieve and started feeling like myself again, until I came home 10 days before Erick was scheduled to fly in. (He thankfully, got off of his deployment 5 months early). Twenty-fours hours after being home, panic attacks started again and I dropped all the weight I had gained during my month's stay in PA and then some. After Erick came home, I was still struggling to keep weight on and my anxiety was still very high...mostly because I was so very thin and it worried me. I went back in to see the doctor - hoping she would just tell me it was stress and maybe give me some tips or advice to help me center myself again - but instead she scheduled me for a CAT scan to check for masses. I left that appointment, like so many before it, in tears. How in the heck did I get here? I did the CAT scan - normal. I talked to a therapist who told me I was more than justified to be having all of these anxiety issues after all the crap and stress I had been through. She wanted to put me on medication, I refused. I wanted to do this naturally, like I did before. She gave me some relaxation exercises, gave me some homework to do before bed each night (I wasn't sleeping so I had to go through relaxation exercises each night, but the best medicine for me, was the Disney Cruise. Erick and I had scheduled that when we found out he was coming home early - it was scheduled for a week after my appointment with the therapist.

 Now I think it's awful that my best medicine was the cruise and not reading my scriptures or listening to a conference talk. Those helped...believe me they helped. But I needed to get away and have absolutely nothing to worry about. The cruise answered that. Meals were taken care of, beds were made, Erick took the lion's share of the responsibility of watching Elise (which was good for them to bond after deployment anyway) and I was able to relax - truly relax - after 8 months of being a single parent, handling Elise's illnesses and my own, being a pin cushion for the doctors at the clinic and worrying about the safety of my husband, I was able to just sit back and do nothing. It was wonderful.

It's a sad sad world

I experienced something this week that made me realize that the world in which we live is very different from the one I have created in my naive little head. I, Gretchen Clayson, was tested for an STD - more specifically chlamydia - despite numerous protests and assurances of my own moral character and absolute faith in my husband's fidelity. As I lay there on the exam table I recalled another time when my moral character was called into judgement. It was when I was pregnant and a gentleman I worked with asked me if I would be changing my name once the baby came - assuming, obviously, that I was unwed.

Now first let me say that while these two instances are a bit offensive to me personally, I find more humor in them than anything else because of how absolutely ridiculous they are. That being said, it also scares me that we live in such a world that the first assumption someone made about a pregnant woman is that she is unmarried. Furthermore, it deeply saddens me that military culture is so filled with infidelity (especially during deployments) that MY word was not good enough for the doctor and that I was subjected to a test that I absolutely knew was going to come back negative - yet I felt the full shame of being screened for a sexually transmitted disease as the airman who I told three times that it was not necessary to screen me for said STD was called back into the exam room to prepare a swab for a chlamydia test.

There is all this talk out there now about loving whoever, not being bound by laws or "morals". I don't care what other people do in their bedrooms but I do care about the decay of the moral fabric of society. Sexual promiscuity is dangerous - it has consequences. Those who don't think so are living in a dream world. STDs, unplanned pregnancy, they are all consequences of living this "I do what I want with who I want" mindset. Alright, I'm done ranting.

Texas

There is something truly empowering yet humbling about traveling alone with an infant. It forces you to be a bit bolder and more assertive than you normally would be, but it also forces you to swallow your pride and be truly grateful for the kindness of strangers.

Elise's first airplane trip was a success - plain and simple (no pun intended). She didn't cry AT ALL -- even when we sat in the plane for an hour in Dallas waiting for a computer reboot so we could take off. I couldn't have asked for a sweeter angel than my baby girl - she made it easy. However, trying to juggle a stroller, carry on bags, (and initially my checked bags) was not so simple. When Erick deployed, there was a host of "bag men" at the Montgomery airport who jumped to help Erick with his bags...in fact it was done with such alacrity that I hardly knew it was done at all. Erick checked in and was free to spend the rest of his time with me, Elise and a group of well wishers. I'm not sure what happened a mere three weeks later when I got to the airport, but no such service was to be had. In fact, when I finally made my way to the counter (very very slowly) the attendant there (who had been chatting it up with her other airport pals while I was moving two steps at a time)weighed my bags and then told me very curtly that I needed to then take them over to the TSA bag check at the other end of the airport lobby. I nearly cried. Seeing my despair, she heaved a heavy sigh) and said "ugh, I'll take them.". Things were much brighter, however, when we got to Dallas. An elderly couple flying to San Angelo saw that I was alone, took the stroller and my carry on bag and placed them in the valet cart for me...i hadn't even asked for help - and at that point, I really didn't need it, but I appreciated it all the same.

Getting into San Angelo MUCH later than anticipated we had a quick night of sleep and headed to Schlitterbahn EARLY the next morning. Schlitterbahn is the greatest water park EVER. Elise absolutely loved it - she had a ball - even with about only 3 hours of sleep. We got back up to San Angelo the next day and had another two days of 4th of July festivities. Elise was pretty darn tired at this point and I think the next few days for her were all about regaining the sleep she had lost - she was one tired kiddo.

The rest of our trip was just as wonderful. It was so nice having friends and family around - even if it was just one other person in the house, it was just nice to know that someone else was there. We went swimming, we spent time with friends, we ate out A LOT, we played, we visited the dogs, we relaxed - we had a good time. The only thing that could have made the trip better would have been if Erick had been there. There were those moments, especially being in San Angelo, that it was very hard to not think of him being gone. I think in some ways his absence was compounded, but in others ways it was made easier by being with family and friends.