And the rest of November.....finally! hehehe

OK, here we are....at the end of November and almost caught up....phew! hehehe

I am going to try and do this one chronologically....just to type a big word!

In the middle of the month they put the cupboards/cabinets in our house. The bathroom ones are great, the second bathroom one is bigger than I thought it would be. The kitchen ones on the other hand.....not so much. First of all, the top row are a foot shorter than they are supposed to be. We told the designer, and the realtor that we wanted the 42" cabinets in the kitchen (as there is a high ceiling in there), and they looked really nice in the model home. We have the 36", and they are about halfway up the wall and look silly. I am not happy. When we saw them we went to find the designer and then talked to the contractor. Apparently they are ordered from China, and although there is no price difference we may not be able to get the ones we want. We offered to wait, we are not moving in for 2 months and are happy to have them put in later, just to have what we want....so we'll see...it's up to the cabinet man. Gggrrrrrrr. Also the layout of the cabinets is not what we had in mind and it annoys me that our friends across the street have a much more user friendly design than we do. OK, enough ranting...I will put pics up so you can tell me what you think!

On the up side, we have a sidewalk/footpath, and grass in the front of our house now! There seems to be very little left to do....wood floors and carpet....counter tops....and lights....I can't wait!

On to the next event. Last weekend we went to a friends party and there was a flying fox (zip-line) running between a couple of trees there. After a while I thought I would give it a go, most of the boys had been on it and Chris had been down a few times. I climbed the ladder up to the platform, about 15 feet up. I grabbed the handle, being a pro (of course, all kiwi kids do this!), and set off.......

Unfortunately I went 5 feet and it locked up. Let's just say the sudden stop knocked me off, and I fell 15 feet and landed on my hip. I was lying on the ground realising what had happened when a couple of guys stood over me and asked why I had let go, and told me to get up....well....apparently when I am hurt I dislike useless and stupid advice so I warned them that if they did not move away from me I would kick them in the balls....I had had the breath knocked out of me and I wanted to breathe for a minute and assess where I hurt. Chris was really good, and he said he tried to catch me, but it all happened so fast, I didn't realise what had happened until I hit the ground. He moved my legs and made me wiggle my toes, checked all the important stuff.

I was helped up and moved into the house. Then it was decided that we should go to the ER. Luckily we had Beth there to give us directions, and poor Sarah got a phone call waking her up and saying we were off to the ER and who do we call for the military stuff. We arrived and I was put in a wheelchair and wheeled into a room, then I had a neck brace put on me and I was strapped to a board. By this point the shock had started to wear off and the pain was setting in. Not fun. The doctor checked my spine and I was allowed off the board, but had to wear the neck brace for a bit longer. Sometime during all of this they cut my jeans off. My NZ jeans. I am now (I'm sure) the only female in the whole of America with only 1 pair of jeans. It's a good thing I had underwear on that say "I see your underwear"...hehehe

I was put on an IV, given some morphine, then something to take away the nausea caused by the morphine, then a catheter.....not nice. I would advise anyone thinking about getting one to avoid it if possible. But all the nurses were very nice. I was then wheeled into Xray by the technician, who we will say was not so nice. Granted it was 2am Sunday morning by then, but surely this spiced her boring night up a bit. She took what seemed like 15 different Xrays of all angles around my left hip (which I had landed on), and around my right hip (where it hurt and they suspected liver lacerations or internal bleeding or something). I had managed when she left me and told me to climb from my bed onto the table by myself, but when she came out and rolled me onto my left hip that was it....holy crap that hurt!! They had to have the nurse come in and give me more morphine.

After that we started the waiting game. Unfortunately for the hospital they do not lock cupboards in ER rooms....where Chris was waiting with me. He found lots of souvenirs, he also left a blown-up rubber glove in a cupboard, and generally made a nuisance of himself. When the Xray results came in they were apparently not clear in some areas so it was decided that I needed a Cat Scan. For that I had to drink two large cups of bright yellow "Gatorade"....with extras in it, so my organs glowed or whatever....hehehe. It was nice to have something to drink, but not so nice that they left me for an hour and we got to see the bright yellow stuff in my pee bag by my feet....good times!

I was wheeled off again and transferred to another table where I had to have my arms above my head. Easier said than done, because I had heart monitors all over me and I was connected to an IV and all sorts of other stuff...plus I was really tired by then, it must have been almost 5am. So I went in the machine and out, in and out, in and out....and something was injected into my IV that made my insides glow and made me feel like it was about 300 degrees inside my body....interesting feeling.

After that there was more waiting....and by now I was starting to get grumpy at the lack of communication. I wasn't allowed anything to drink until they knew what was going on, this went double for the removal of the most annoying (and in the wrong place) IV and catheter. So we waited....William and Beth who were with us had been told to head out to the suburban and go to sleep. Chris alternated between pacing, playing with things and sleeping on a chair.

They finally came in and I got the all clear...no liver lacerations, nothing broken and I was to understand how lucky I was. Right. I had some contusions and a lot of bruising, the next couple of days would be worse (yay, something to look forward to). I was to look out for blood in my pee, fainting and all that good stuff, oh, and we are writing you a prescription for 750mg Vicoden. And feel free to take Motrin/Ibuprofen as well.

Then they had us wait. For what I don't know. We watched the shift change in the hospital, my main nurse told me that he was heading off home to bed (where I wanted to be).......and finally....the removal of all things foreign from my body. I was relieved. We eventually left the hospital at a little after 8am....aah it only took 7 or so hours....I was so happy to go to bed.

When I woke up, I was greeted by my Vicoden, and the next 2 days or so were mostly sleeping or being groggy. They were right about the pain being worse though. I noticed that I must have landed on my shoulder as well, so my whole arm hurt like hell....not to mention my sexy shuffle/limp!

This was a week ago, so I am now up and about....albeit slowly. My bruises are coming out, very nice looking they are too! Chris has been wonderful looking after me and dosing me with lots of fluids....Charlie has been a little less patient, but being laid back, he was happy to chill and sleep with me (especially since it is colder outside).

Thursday was Thanksgiving over here, and Chris went all out. There were supposed to be a lot more people coming, but a few backed out last minute....so the food for 15 Chris had made, and the 5 people we had....well....let's just say I am still eating turkey and leftovers! hehehe. Just for a rundown of how much food we had let me give you an idea....a big turkey, a turkey breast (size of a large chicken), a ham, noodles, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, bread rolls, roasted garlic, salad and a ton of stuffed mushrooms.....oh and two types of gravy...hehehe.......We had a lovely day, and more people came over later for a great night!

And I'm spent....that's a lot to catch up on in one day....I hope all is well for you, and that all Americans reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And Happy (late) Anniversary to Si and Wand...xxxxx

Enjoy the piccies,
Anna xxxxxxxx