Life in January

This January has been eventful in many ways. It started out with sending the family home after the holidays. Alex having a second "heart attack" during a his first wrestling match for 2009. Luckily, this time we had Coach Allran, the trainer from our high school there and he knew what to do. Coach Allran, along with our doctor, recommended that Alex have further testing at Sanger Clinic which is a cardiology clinic that only deals with heart related problems. I was able to call a get him an appointment set up for January 30th. I told the office clerk when I called that a person could die of a heart attack waiting for their appointment to come up. HA HA!!!

We did go on Friday and had a echo-stress test where Alex had to run on a tread mill for several minutes. The tech would increase the speed and the altitude of the treadmill every few minutes. The cardiologist told Alex to run until he could not run anymore. He explained that there are six levels to the test and no one had ever made it to level six. He said that a really good athlete would make it part way through level 5. Alex made it almost to level six. This kid is in good shape. The cardiologist then had an ultrasound of the heart performed and we are happy to report that his problem is definitely NOT heart related. It has been determined that is it probably a muscle spaism issue that can be caused by dehydration. That could be entirely possible since during wrestling season, wrestlers often don't eat or drink the day of a match to keep their weight down which could lend to the muscle problem. The joys of having athletic kids. The one other good thing is that Alex has had no further attacks since the second one that happened the first part of January.

He actually took 3rd place in our region tournament yesterday as a freshman. We are very proud of him and are getting ready for the next level.

I mentioned that Ashley had moved home and was looking for a job. We did have three interviews in one week that we were excited about and hoped would lead to a job. NO JOB!!! All three dentists explained that due to the failing economy---they would be cutting back and not hiring after all. I told her not to worry that President Obama would get her a job---HA HA

She did have some luck these week in getting a part-time job working at our local YMCA. She will be working with the director of the after-school program. It is only 20 hours a week but HEY right now---we will take the 20 hours and continue to look for another part-time job or full-time dental job. There is a new Marriott hotel opening up in March and they are starting to take applications this week so she will also be checking that out. I told her to use Emily and McKell as references since they were former Marriott employees. Should they call you two---give her a good one.

Ladd has been busy traveling to check on the Nucor mills he is responsible for. Times are tough for Nucor but they are keeping their guys working at reduced hours and no lay-offs. Nucor's CEO, Dan DiMicco is scheduled to be on CBS's 60 Minutes next Sunday night, February 8th, if anyone is interested in tuning in.

This month has been sad/happy one for our extended family. On January 22nd, we lost our Aunt Joanne Stein Johnson Rouse to complications from a massive stroke. Aunt Joanne had been living in Paradise, California with her second husband, Brent Rouse. We will miss her and are sad to lose her from our lives but happy for the reunion that took place in Heaven with the reuniting of her with our Uncle Blaine who died of cancer at age 40 many many years ago. She leaves behind six children, Cindie, Jeff, Jenny, Jana, Courtney and Chris and many grandchildren. Aunt Joanne will long be remembered for her kindness and sweet nature. She and Uncle Blaine moved to Paradise many years ago when Uncle Blaine started his medical practice there. We are excited for her to once again be reunited with her eternal sweetheart.

This month was also full of another surprise......SNOW in Charlotte. We got a whole 3 inches on the ground and school OF COURSE was cancelled. Our neighborhood was full of children, both young and old, playing in the white stuff. I know this is no big deal for our Utah family but it has been 10 years since my kids have seen snow of any accumation. They had a great time. It was fun to watch the world pause for just a moment for everyone to just PLAY. I think we need more SNOW DAYS in life.

Back to the Grind

Early the morning of January 1st, 2009 brought the end to a fun ten days of family togetherness. That morning Ladd and I took Emily, her daughter, Macey, and my mother, Karen Smoot to the Charlotte International Airport for an early morning flight back to the snow and cold of Utah. It was a sad day for us. It is the same sort of feeling you feel the day you take your Christmas tree down. I was a bit draggy that morning since the night before, Ladd and I had chaperoned our church's youth dance until 1:00 a.m. in the morning. We got home around 1:30 a.m., I had one last one-on-one visit with my mom, got to bed around 2:30 a.m. and up at 4:45 a.m. The 4:45 a.m. time is usually not a problem for me because that is the time I get up every weekday morning to get ready for my early morning seminary class but the fact that I had not got into bed until 2:30 a.m. made for a more of a long nap verses a night's sleep. I was able to come home and catch an additional hour of sleep but then I heard grand-daughter #2, Addison awake and I thought to myself, "I have just got to get up and play with that baby before she takes off back to Tennessee." So that is exactly what I did. We played for a few minutes and then I began to clean and straighten our messy house in preparation for a visit from some great friends from Darlington, SC, Brian and Rita Jordan who were stopping in for a visit. They were in Charlotte to visit Rita's aunt and paid us the courtesy of coming to see us too. It was fun to catch up on old times from our days in Florence.



Later that afternoon, one more trip to the airport to take Mike and Lynsee and daughter, Addison to catch their flight to Nashville, TN. They live in Jackson which is approximately 1 1/2 hours west of Nashville. It was also hard to see them go since we have been spoiled over the last year of having them only 3 hours away in Charleston, SC. We got a chance to see them almost every long weekend. That will not be the case now. For us, Jackson will be a nine hour drive.



We are now back to the thick of school, seminary, wrestling, & winter track meets. And of course---HOMEWORK!!! With only 2 1/2 weeks left in the semester, it is starting to pile up a bit---YUCK!!!



We got a surprise visit from our daughter, Heather Edwards from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She and her husband, Blaine had to drive to Atlanta, GA for Blaine to attend four days of training seminars for his company Georgia Pacific. Heather decided to drive the four hours from Atlanta to Charlotte to visit with us rather than spend that time sitting in a boring hotel room. It was been having her here.



Our daughter, Ashley moved home during the holidays from Provo, Utah. She has been interviewing this week with dental offices hoping to get a job soon. She graduated in March with a certification in dental assisting. The job scene is beginning to look a bit more positive since she had three call-backs with interviews this week-----YEAH!!!



Tonight is our first wrestling matches since the Christmas break. Alex's last match that was just before Christmas proved to be an eventful one. He had just finished warming up and was getting ready to wrestle when all of a sudden he dropped to the floor with terrible chest pain. He has suffering with a sharp stabbing pain, sweating profusely, and tears were coming from his eyes. Alex is one tough kid so when he was crying and complaining of the intense pain I was, needless to say, VERY concerned. The pain began to get more intense, there was no trainer at the school we were wrestling. Needless to say, we ended up calling an ambulance and rushing him to the ER at Carolinas Medical Center---Pineville. After an EKG and a chest x-ary were performed and all was found to be normal, Alex was released from the hospital that night. What a scarey thing. I was relieved that it was not his heart but yet they couldn't tell me what it was either so the unknown is also a bit scarey. Time will tell if it happens again.