Remembering

I was checking in on a childhood classmate's blog page, and she had a short post about losing mothers. It made me instantly think back to our friend Kelly in Kentucky. Kelly's husband Scott was Ronnie's first cousin, and they had six children. The oldest daughter was sixteen and little Ben was just one year old when Kelly went in for routine surgery (tubal ligation) and developed sepsis. She went home, got sick, went in to the hospital, was transferred to Vanderbilt, and died at Vanderbilt. At the time, I was in Chicago and unable to get a flight to Nashville. I still think about Kelly, Scott, and her kids quite often. She was a wonderful woman and only thirty-six years old. I get reports quite often through Ebby or Deanna, and when I saw Scott and the kids about a year ago, they seemed to be doing well. Ellie and Anna were only 4 and 5 when Kelly died.

Okay, so that was a downer start to this post. I just started thinking about Kelly. As for my life personally, there isn't too much going on. As most of you know, Kelsey has made herself very comfortable in our guest room, and we have a good routine for the three of us living here together. It has honestly been no trouble or inconvenience. Kelsey gets up after us in the morning so by the time I hear her alarm clock, I am heading out to work. By the time she needs the bathroom, both of us are long gone. In the evenings, she is training for her marathon and is therefore gone for quite some time (to think that she is running the whole time is hard to imagine!) Most evenings, she has been eating dinner with us, and yes, Kelsey IS allowed to help with the dishes. As some of you know, I don't allow anyone to help with the dishes when they visit my home. However, since Kelsey is not a visitor, I have decided to give-in on this issue. Actually tonight, Kelsey is making dinner!

JB is leaving for Eglin Air Force Base on August 6th, and will be there until September 2nd. I will be going to visit from August 10-21. It will be nice to have Kelsey here with me during that time. As most of you also know, I am not too keen on being by myself. I do feel safe in the condo, but it takes me forever to fall asleep when I am the only one in the house. (The birds and fish do not count.) So it is actually a good month to have some company.

We have also been looking ahead to JB's trip to Nigeria in March/April of 2007. Originally, it was just Tara and he planning to make the trip. However, two of our friends, Ajit and Hans, are now planning to join them. They will be going to a clinic in Nigeria for a month to do medical work. Apparently, fourth year students are very in-demand, as they are just a few months from becoming doctors. They have most of the knowledge and foresight to get the job done, but are not busy with their residencies yet.

As for me, whether I go to to Nigeria or not will depend on if we are pregnant. If I am pregnant, even a little bit, I will probably not go. We would discuss it with our doctor, but after waiting and trying this long, we would probably not risk me leaving the country and having to take shots for malaria etc. Even if I am not pregnant, I would need to get a month leave from work which I am not sure I can do. However, I would love to be able to see JB actually in his field. I truly have NO idea what JB does everyday. He tells me, but I can't really picture it until I see it.

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Congratulations to Gabbi K. (JB's brother's wife) for knowing that the answer to the last trivia question was a LAWNMOWER! Yikes -- 80 mph. That's fast.