A Love Story

 Some of my friends have already seen this and some were even there. But I wanted to share this with my 

Julie and Roy

2002

new blog family so that you know how Julie and I started our lives together.

So without further ado....

A LOVE STORY

Thursday February 14th, 2002 started out as a normal Valentines Day. Or so my girlfriend thought. You see, we were getting married that day and she knew absolutley nothing about it. But before we get into that, lets back up a bit.

I had been divorced for about 3 1/2 yrs. I had an active social life, never really wanting for a date. I had been in a few relationships that usually ended with me being cheated on. I finally had had it up to here and decided to give up on dating. I was done. I was tired of the games, tired of the bars and tired of being used. I was a little more than gun shy. Hell I was shell shocked, I had post tramatic stress disorder; Dating style.

I decided to concentrate my energies on being a dad and finding myself again. Since my divorce, I had never really took the time to find me. I went from one person, to the next, to the next. I realized that I had so much baggage with me that I had completely lost who I was. So my weekends consisted of my son and I sitting around in our underwear eating popcorn, drinking beer (of the root variety) and watching cartoons. Usually Scooby Doo or Bugs Bunny. It was great to find myself and I am so thankful that I did. I don't think, actually I know, my marriage would not be what it is now without my taking time off to find ME.

Now you know a little background.

Julie and I had met in January of 2000. Now if she was writing this she could tell you the day, hour, minute, what position the stars were in, what moon was where, what song was playing on the radio, what we were wearing, etc. But me being male....We met in January of 2000. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Dusty. The moment I laid eyes on her I was done. Julie was and is one of the most beautiful women that I have ever met. She is also one of the sweetest and kindest women that God ever made.

We dated for a couple of monthes and then she moved in and we lived together for about 1 1/2 yrs. During this time she made it very clear that she wanted to get married. Not in a pushy way mind you. She just put her heart on her sleeve and let it be shown to all. Every holiday that came along that involved any type of gift giving, she was anxiously awaiting a ring. She never asked for one, but I could see the disappointment when she didn't get one. I was still very leary about committing to such a huge step. I always told myself that if I did it again, then it would be the last time. I didn't want to go through another divorce and I didn't want to put someone else through it either. I am ashamed to admit that I put her throught hell. We even ended up breaking up for a couple of months because I couldn't see the forest through all the trees. There were some things that happened that made me realize that yeah, I was a dumbass. Thankfully, I pulled my head out, she took me back, and the rest is history.

So, I finally decided that I wanted to pop the question. But I wanted it to be very unusual. I asked her parents permission and set everything in motion. My plan was to put the entire wedding together without her knowing it. I wanted to propose and get married on Valentines Day.

I had 8 days.

Julie worked for the City of Wichita as a Docket Clerk in the courts. I asked her Judge to marry us and he was all for it. With that done, I had to get all of our friends, family and co-workers on board and they all readily conspired to make this happen. I had the assurance from everyone that this would be kept a secret. I told them that if she found out about it that I wouldn't do it and they could explain to her why it didn't happen. Hey it worked LOL. Now all I needed was the marriage license, dress, shoes, tuxedos, rings, music, flowers, etc. and so on.

I immediatley went down and got the marriage license and was assured by the lady that it wouldn't hit the paper until after we were already married.

License Done

Julie already had a dress that she had bought a couple of years before at one of the wedding expo's at Century II. She found the one she loved and found it for a great price. This was the dress she always wanted to be married in. It was in a big rubber maid box at my mom's house. I had to get it over to my house, get her in it, get it measured, get it out of the house and to the alterations place without her getting suspicious.

Impossible you say? 

I had a plan.

I called my mom and told her than she needed to call Julie and tell her that she had a roof leak and that her dress was getting wet and that she was afraid that it would get ruined. My mom made the call and Julie told her that "it didn't matter. She was never going to wear it anyway". My mom told her that she didn't want to be responsable for it getting ruined and that she wanted us to get it. So, Julie and I talked about it and I told her that I would pick it up the next day at my mom's work and bring it home. Of course it added just a little bit of the "inconvenience attitude" to keep her from getting suspicious about anything.

Dress in the house.

I had Dusty on board and told her that I had the dress at the house. She came by that night. Now, everyone knows that you cannot have a wedding dress around women without someone trying it on right? And since it was Julies, guess who tried on the dress? Now Julie had gotten a little bigger or should I say bustier since she bought the dress. Actually a lot busiter. Like from a C to a DD. Her and Dusty went back to the bedroom and Julie tried the dress on. She called me back to the bedroom to help zip it up. I used this little opportunity to measure with my hand just how far up the zipper went and how narrow across the back it was. After the appropriate amount of OOH's and AHH's and the right amount of non-interest on my part, she took the dress off and re-packed it back in the box.

Dress on, measured and off.

I told her that there was no place for us to keep it. Dusty told her that she'd keep it over at her house and for me to bring it over the next day. So, I put it back in my truck and the next day instead of going to Dusty's, I took it to the alterations place, where I tried to explain to the lady that spoke very little english, exactly what I needed done and that I needed it by next Wednesday. Which was 6 days away.

Dress Delivered.

Now during this time I was also getting my suit done, I bought a suit for Chance, got the music put together etc. I even got Julie a new pair of shoes to wear for the wedding.

The next task was the ring. I was still worried about mine but I knew that I would have to special order it so I figured I would just have to wait. One night I was at Wal-mart, yes Wal-mart, and out of curiosity, I thought I would check out their jewelry deparment and look at their wedding sets. After talking to the girl at the counter, she told me what I pretty much knew; There was no way that they could get a ring big enough to fit me. But the set that I really liked didn't have a mens ring to it anyway. Someone had sold on accident, misplaced or stole the mens ring. It was a beautiful engagement and wedding ring. I started asking about it and discovered that as a trio it was over $1400.00. But as a two ring set, they were pretty much stuck with it. They couldn't send it back because it was incomplete and they obviously couldn't sell it as a trio. I asked to speak to the manager and after about an hours worth of haggeling with the jewelry manager and the store managers, I was able to buy the set for $75.00. Yeah, $75.00.

Ring Done.

Time was getting short and Julie was starting to get a little suspicious. She just said that I was acting a little strange. Gee I wonder why.

Wednesday.  I picked up the dress. It looked great. They had actually added little hooks (like bra clasp)beside the zipper where it got to small around the bust. They added a diamond shaped lace panel that could be removed and this made it so that the dress could be easily altered back to original. She put a new stop in the zipper so that it would stop under the lace panel. The neck of the dress was like a choker so the lace panel just tied everything in from where the zipper ended up to the neck. Looking at it you could never tell that the panel wasn't part of the original dress. I dropped it off at her parents house for them to bring to the wedding. I couldn't be seen with it now.

Dress Done.

They don't make tuxes in my size (that are fashionable) so I ended up buying a new suit. I knew that Julies parents were going to throw a a reception about a month after the wedding and I knew that we were going to have wedding pictures taken which meant that we were going to be dressing up twice. Instead of renting a tux for Chance twice, I just bought him a suit too. We bought tuxexo shoes, vests and bow ties. We ended up saving about $400.00  by buying everything instead of trying to rent tuxes twice. And you'd never know by looking at them that they weren't tuxes.

Tuxedos Done.

I found some real pretty ceramic roses that were actually ring holders. The top half of the flower opens up to reveal a ring holder. I thought these were really cool and would be awesome for the bridesmaids to carry. It also seconded as their bridesmaids gifts. I then ordered some flowers for Julie to carry for a small bouquet.

Flowers Done

I went through my checklist and had everything in order.

Thursday rolled around and I had everything all packed up and ready to go. The plan was for everyone to meet at the courthouse at about 3 o'clock and start getting everything ready. I had her dress, shoes, makeup, hot rollers, curling irons, tuxes, rings, everything else under the sun that I thought she would need, I stopped by the florist, picked up the flowers and went to the courthouse. A couple of my co-workers contacted the media so we also had channel 3, 10, 12 and a Wichita Eagle reporter there as well.

Me and Chance

Chance and I got dressed and then we waited with all of our family and friends for 5 o'clock to roll around. We did a few interviews with the reporters and at about 4:45 pm, we all headed towards the courtroom to hide out.

At about 5 till, just as Julie was getting off work, we had one of her co-workers call her and tell her that she needed to come to courtroom Z and pick up some paperwork for the Judge. She tried to get out of it by stating that she really wanted to get home for Valentines Day and asked if she could get it in the morning. The co-worker told her "No, that the Judge demanded the paperwork and that he wanted it NOW".

The Proposal

We were all in the room waiting for her to show. The news stations had just gone live at 5 with the announcement of a surprise engagement and wedding. We had a lookout peeking out of the door so that we would know when she was about to come in when all of a sudden, BOOM..There she was. She had came from the other direction. She opened up the door from the blind side and the lookout fell right at her feet. She looked down at him, he looked up at her, and I don't know which of them was more suprised. Julie walked in, looked around and saw a room full people staring at her. She instantly had the "deer caught in the headlights" look.

Chance and I were in our tuxes and all of our family and friends were gathered around. The cameras were rolling, the lights were shining and I got down on one knee and said "Julie, I love you more than anything in the world. Will you marry me? About 75 of our closeest friends and family as well as an entire viewing audience on three seperate TV stations were waiting for an answer. Talk about intense.

Julie was still in a dazed and confused state. Everyone got silent, waiting to hear the answer. She finally looked and me and said "UM O.K". Not exactly a tearful response that I had expected but she told me later that she was so surprised and shocked that she couldn't say anything else. Inside she was jumping up and down but outside she was paralized.

Even though I knew the answer, my heart skipped a beat. I said "O.K. Your dress, make-up and everything that you need is in the interrogation room. Dusty and Diane will help you get ready. You have about 58 minutes. I love you". She was still in shock and really didn't know what to do. Dusty came up and took her by the arm. Julie turned around and still in a stupor was led out by her best friend to get ready for her wedding.

We all sat around and talked. The kids ran around and played and we all waited for Julie to come back in. Since my hand and finger were the only things used to measure her dress I was really anxious to see what her dress looked like. I was worried that I hadn't measured it right. I was really afraid that it wouldn't fit and she would be married in a really ill fitting dress. I had worked so hard to make this day special for her and it all came down to my half-assed measurements.

Waiting at the alter

Chance stood up with me as my best man. I always told myself that if I ever got married again that I wanted him beside me. It was important to me that he be the one by my side. He looked so cute in his little tux and even though it got a little boring for him he hung in there until the end.

I proposed live at 5 and about hour later, live at 6, with the cameras going and thousands of anonomous people watching, she came walking into the room, led by her dad and looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her. Her dad handed her off to me and after taking Julies hand I vowed to love her for the rest of my life.

Daddy and Daughter

Saying I do

Sealed with a kiss

On that day I married my soul mate. She is my one true love and my best friend. 

That night she told me that she had read Thursdays paper. Back then they had the marriage license applications listed in the paper on Thursday. The lady at the marriage license bureau was wrong. It was in Thursdays paper that I had applied for a marriage license.  She didn't realize that she was going to get married, she just thought that I might propose because of the way that I had been acting. That was why she was trying to get home so fast. Before she could ask me about it, we were married.

Unfortunaely, she had to work the next day.

On Friday, I got a call from some friends and family out of state. They told me that they saw Julie and I on Good Morning America. I guess they picked it up off of an affiliate station and they showed a tape of the proposal and part of the wedding on the show that morning. It was kinda cool.

We had a weekend honeymoon in Wichita. It wasn't anything extremely fancy. We spent the weekend at the Hyatt, ate out at a couple of nice restaurants and took a carriage ride around downtown. It was chilly and just shy of snowing. We just cuddled under a blanket and enjoyed the ride.

What was really cool though was that no matter where we went everyone knew Roy and Julie. Everyone recognized us. We had strangers coming up to us and congratulating us. It was pretty awesome. For one weekend I was able to make Julie feel like a star.

That was 9 years ago and they have been the best years of my life. She has given me two beautiful daughters and there is not a day that goes by that she doesn't show her love for me. There is no one that I would rather spend the rest of my life with. I love Julie more today than I did yesterday, but not near as much as I will tomorrow. She is my heart and soul. There is no one that could ever take her place. There are just no words than can adequately describe how I feel about her. Sometimes even the word "love" just doesn't quite cut it. She is my wife, my heart, my soul, my life, my love, my best freind, my confidant, my lover and the mother of my children. She is beautiful, caring and has a true, kind heart.

She is my everything,

I love you Julie

 



Milk, Ice cream and other STUFF

Now that I have the blog up and running I want to start sharing some stories from my life. Some are going to be funny, others sad and yet others that will make you ponder and wonder.

This is one of my favorite stories.

It was 1996 and I was recently separated and mid divorce from my ex-wife. Chance was about 2 1/2 yrs old and we were living in a little condo apartment out by Central and Anna.

It was an awkward time because, as anyone who has been through a divorce knows, it is a transition period. Chance was still very confused, as was I, about the whole thing. I was still trying to get used to being a single dad and he was still trying to get used to his mom not being around everyday. 

Anyway, it was Sunday and it had been a really nice summer day. Chance and I had been out running around, going out to the mall, park, etc. We came home, ate dinner and had finished off the last of the milk. It was still nice out and dinner was over so I decided to take Chance out for ice cream. So off we tripped to Braums. We got there just ahead of the evening "after church" group. As we were standing in line a steady stream of customers were coming through the door, all dressed in their Sunday best. Chance and I ordered our ice cream and took a seat near the back of the store. We sat there, ate our ice cream and talked about the fun that we had that day.

I finished up my ice cream and decided to go up and get the milk. Chance was busy with his ice cream so I went up, go the milk and proceeded to wait in line. As I'm waiting there talking to the person behind me the clerk grabs my milk and starts checking me out when all of a sudden I heard; "DAAADDDYYYY.....daddydaddy, dad, dad, dadDY...DDDAADDDDYYYY, I GOTTA GO POOPOOOO!!!!!  POOOOPOOOOO, DADDDY, daddydaddy, I GOTTA GOOOO POOPOOOO".

Immediately every ones eyes turn to see where the cry of POO POO is coming from. I didn't have to wonder, I KNEW where the cry was coming from. It was Chance. (This is where you need to close your eyes and visualize). I looked over towards where we were sitting and I see Chance trucking through the store, past all of the full tables, winding around all of the people walking past, with his PANTS down around his ankles. He's got both arms working, one arm is holding his shirt up, butt shaking and waddling along, not a care in the world, yelling as loud as he can.."DAAAADDDDYYYYYY, I GOTTA GO POOPPOOO, DADDY, daddydaddy, daDDY, POOPPOOO. Cutest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Every eye in the place is glued to Chance. After a few seconds they all start looking around to see who the lucky parent is. The clerk stopped checking and I looked at him and said "ya wanna hurry up, the kids gotta go. Actually just hold on and I'll be right back."

I run to Chance, who in turn starts running/waddeling away laughing. And of course everyone in the store is laughing too. I grab him, yanking his pants up and picking him up at the same time and rush to the bathroom. We get in there and I get him settled on the pot and say "o.k. buddy, there ya go."

I waited a few minutes and I said "are you o.k.? Are you done?"
Chance: "Yeah"
Me: "Did you go"
Chance: "No, I don't have to go no more."
Me: "Huh"?
Chance: "It went away".
Me: "It went away?
Chance: "Yeah"
Me: "Where did it go?"
Chance: "I don't know, it went away."

Just them it sinks in and I go from calm to panic mode in about .2 seconds. If it isn't in here then it HAD to be......OUT THERE. Terror ripped through me as I thought the unthinkable. Chance had laid..pipe.. in the dining area of Braums. Thoughts and images were running through my head imagining this dooky laying in the middle of the floor, in the middle if Braums, during rush hour.

I sit him back on the toilet and said "I'll be back". Images came to mind of me being Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a turd seeking Tterminator.

I walked out of the bathroom, trying to act all nonchalant like, casually scoping out the floor of Braums, making my way to the front of the store. There wasn't a person in the store that wasn't looking me. My nonchalantness must have needed work because before I knew it every person in the store was looking on the floor with mixed looks of humor and fear on their face. Everyone was whispering as I walked back through the store, this time checking a little closer under the tables just in case the wayward turd decided to seek shelter under one of the tables or worse yet, the bottom of someones shoe. Luckily, I didn't see anything

I headed back to the bathroom still checking out the floor knowing that at any minute I would find Mr. Dooky peeking out from under someones table. I made it back to the bathroom without seeing anything and as I opened up the door to the bathroom, Chance declared "DAAADDDYYYYY.....I WENT PPPOOOPPPOOOOO!!!!.

The entire store erupted into laughter and giant sigh of relief.

I got Chance taken care of, got him dressed and we walked out into the store to cheers and applause. It was unbelievable. We walked through the store, Chance was cheesing it up, people were laughing and cheering him on and you would have thought that he just scored the winning touchdown at the Superbowl. I don't know if they were cheers of joy, relief, or the fact that it was just so damn cute, but they cheered him on.

I went back to the counter, paid for my milk, and we walked out with people still clapping and laughing.

Sleep apnea and face Farts

I have sleep apnea. I am one of millions of people in the world that suffer from this condition. Most people are aware of the basic concept of apnea but for those that aren't sleep apnea is a condition where the person will actually stop breathing while they sleep. It is measured by "episodes" per hour. The more episodes a person has, the worst case they have. I was measured out at over 130 episodes an hour. Yeah, I would stop breathing over 2 times a minute. My pulmonologist said that I have the worst case of apnea that he has ever seen. Usually the person will start breathing again on their own because it often causes the person to wake up. Sometimes they are aware of it, other times they aren't. They just wake up in the morning feeling groggy, un-rested, and exhausted. It is the most common cause of restless sleep.

Most people don't even realize that they suffer from sleep apnea and that can cause some serious issues. The number one symptom of sleep apnea is SNORING. If you snore like a freight train then there is a good chance that you have sleep apnea. Other symptoms include;
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Falling asleep at work or home
Fatigue
Waking up feeling unrefreshed
Memory and concentration problems
Personality changes
Depression,
Restless sleep
Morning or night headaches
Heartburn or a sour taste in your mouth at night
Swelling of the legs
Getting up at night to urinate.
Sweating and chest pains while you sleep
Restless tossing and turning during sleep.
Nighttime choking or gasping spells.

Sleep apnea affects children as well. If you have children that suffer from some of the following symptoms then they may have sleep apnea.

In children younger than 5, symptoms include mouth breathing, snoring, sweating, restlessness, and waking up a lot.
In children 5 years and older, symptoms include snoring, bed wetting, doing poorly in school, and not growing as quickly as they should for their age. These children may also have behavior problems and a short attention span.
Children who have sleep apnea nearly always snore. But they may not appear to be excessively sleepy during the day (a key symptom in adults). The only symptom of sleep apnea in some children may be that they do not grow as quickly as they should for their age.
Although rare, sleep apnea can cause some children to suffer some developmental delays and sleep apnea and can cause failure of the right side of the heart (cor pulmonale)

Most people don't understand that apnea is a serious problem and that it can cause some other life threatening conditions. Sleep apnea can cause your blood oxygen levels to drop which in turn causes the heart work harder and pump faster. This causes extra strain on the heart. Left untreated sleep apnea can cause;
DEATH
Enlarged heart
Congestive heart failure.
Sleep deprivation 
High blood pressure
depression
coronary artery disease
stroke and sudden death.
Weight gain. People often think that being overweight causes apnea but they have found that weight gain is actually a symptom of apnea. Since the oxygen levels in your blood decrease it slows your metabolism down, hindering the body's ability to digest food. Thereby causing weight gain.

Now that all of that has been said, sleep apnea IS treatable with either a CPAP machine (Continuous Passive  Airway Pressure) or a BIPAP (Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure) machine. These are little machines that force air through a face mask that you wear to make sure that you don't quit breathing.The machines are programmable to each person so that they provide the correct amount of pressure for each persons needs.

My purpose of this blog was to get into the symptoms and affects of sleep apnea. I had gone un-diagnosed for several years. In had gotten a sleep study done at one time but I never got the results back. I ended up in the hospital from before getting the results back. Only after my brother suffer a heart attack, get diagnosed with a severely enlarged heart and congestive heart failure because HE had gone un-diagnosed for years, did I decide to get re-tested. I feel like it is my responsibility to put these warnings out there.

The masks look funny but they are surprisingly comfortable to wear. They don't interfere with sleeping and as long as you have a hose long enough, you can roll anyway you want. The mask are strapped to the head with headgear that goes around the temple and jaw and fasten in front. The headgear is adjustable. Too tight and it hurts, too loose and it doesn't seal right.

Now you have to understand, these machines put out A LOT of airflow and that's where the 2nd part of the story comes into play. My bi-pap is set at about 27PSI. More than a hairdryer. The problem that I run into is that eventually the headgear starts to stretch and when it does it pushes the mask out juuust enough that it starts farting. Now I don't mean little old lady fluffs. I don't mean little squeaky toots. I don't mean the little dainty puffs. I mean loud, obnoxious, full blown wake my wife out of a dead sleep, echo through the still night air, enough to make a sailor blush, FARTS. It sounds like a group of construction workers leaving the finals of a 3 day chili eating contest. Thank God that there is no smell associated with these because the sound alone is enough to instill fear in the young hearts of men and send women and children screaming into the night.. And it isn't one, it is every time I exhale. And what really sucks is that they tickle. The vibration of the mask against my cheek, tickles. So then I start to laugh and it sounds like an old man with the walking farts. I try to roll over or adjust the mask to get it to stop but the only way is to stop the machine, take the mask off, turn on the light, adjust the headgear and try it back on and hope for the best. So I spent a majority of my time last night getting woke up by mask farting.

                                                                   ADDENDUM

I have a sad addendum to add to this blog. I originally posted this in May of 2011. I have warned many friends and others about the dangers of sleep apnea. I have urged people to get help and one of those was my dear friend Greg Honeywell. Greg suffered from many of the symptoms listed above and I begged him for years to go get a sleep study and get tested for apnea. He poo pooed the idea and never took it serious. On October 16th 2013, Greg was found dead in bed. He was 56 years old. He lived alone and had been dead for a couple of days. The coroner stated that Greg passed away on Friday night or Saturday morning.  He didn't have a set work schedule, he came and went as he pleased and worked his appointments. He missed a couple of appointments over the weekend but it wasn't until Wednesday, after several co-workers and clients mentioned that they hadn't seen him, did people get worried. They concluded, after his autopsy, that Greg had died from an apnea episode. He quit breathing and didn't start back up again. If he had been on a bi-pap, he'd still be alive.

Please, Please, PLEASE. If you suffer from any of the above symptoms (besides the farting) go see your Dr. immediately. Especially your children. Sleep apnea is nothing to fool around with. It is dangerous, it is deadly and it is completely treatable. If someone you know suffers from these symptoms, don't let up until they get checked. It really is a matter of life or death. I wish that there was something more that I could have done help Greg. R.I.P friend.

Thanks for reading

New beginnings

I have had several people tell me that I should start a blog and like everyone else before me, I thought; What about my life is interesting enough to blog about? Maybe I still don't know but I am going to give it a try anyway. So to get this thing started allow me to introduce you to the people that comprise my life.

Julie, my wife (isn't she a hottie), has been the driving force in my life since we met. We have been married for 9 years and have been together for 11yrs. She is a legal secretary for an attorney in downtown Wichita. She has a BA in human resources managenment and is an avid reader. She is a fantastic cook and baker which is funny because she didn't even start cooking until she was about 19yrs old. Her cooking has saved countless lives and saved many a person from going blind. How you may ask? Her cooking has kept me just fat enough that I am always unable to lose that last 300 lbs. for bikini season LOL. Our meeting and subsequent marriage will be saved for a future blog.

I was married before and even though the marriage itself was a shambles, I did manage to walk away from it with a great son. Chance is 17 yrs. old and is a really good kid. He is a junior in high school and even though he has his teenage boy rebellious moments he rarely causes us to lose sleep. He's not a sports person. He is more into the computers, books, art and is a published author. He writes some serious poetry and last year his english teacher submitted one of his poems and it won a spot in a book of poetry. His poem "Who is my reflection" is published in the fall version of "A Celebration Of Poets" Midwest Grades 4-12 Pg. 16.

Chickie is our 8yr. old daughter. She just completed 2nd grade and is an absolutely beautiful young lady. She is extremely bright and very intelligent. She loves to play sports and is always eager to try out for any sport that she can. She is a cheerleader and loves to play basketball, baseball and soccer and was taking martial arts. Hopefully we will get her back into martial arts again soon. She has definatley taken after me the height area. She is very tall for her age, has plainum blonde hair and blue eyes.

Mouse is our 4 yr.old daughter. She is an absolute doll. She is just getting out of her first year of pre-school. She will turn 5 before school starts but we have decided to keep her in pre-school one more year. She is extremely intelligent, just like the other two, but since she is so close tothe cut off date for school, we want to let her have that added year in pre-school. She still has a little bit of the cute little baby lisp thing going on. She takes more after Julie even though I have been told that both girls look just like me. She is a little more petite and has blonde hair with Julies green eyes.

If you look close enough you can see the horns holding up their halos LOL



And then there's me. Like I posted before I am 46 yrs. old and yes I am 7'3" tall. My height has it's advantages and disadvantages and you will often read about some of the problems (funny and serious) that it causes. I have a very outgoing personallity and a great sense of humor. A weird scewed sense of humor but great non the less. I am not embarrassed by much so you will often see photos on my blog that most people would be embarrassed to show. I am disabled. Not handicapped. Disabled. There is a difference. I don't want to try and compare my situation with people that are physically handicapped. It is not fair to them. I have degenerative peripheral neuropothy in both feet and legs. It is a condition that is typically associated with diabetes and it is caused by the nerve endings dying. It causes numbness in the affected areas but also severe pain. It is very painful to stand and walk for periods of time. The best way to describe it is when your feet get really cold during the winter and you can't feel them but then they start to warm up and you get the pins and needles sensation. It's like that. I can feel an itch in my feet but I can't feel the scratch. The thing is I am not diabetic so they are unsure as to why I have the condition. They think that it's caused by my height. I have had some other issues as well, but we will get into those later. Julie and I also operate a website that sells gas and electric scooters, mopeds, and other fun stuff. Check us out at  Adventurescooters.com. 

So this is me and my family. I am very proud of each and everyone of them. I hope that you enjoy my daily musings on life. I hope to make you laugh, cry and sometimes just shake your head and wonder why. Thanks for reading.