Kris finally was able to get in and get her leg taken care of. Back in October she went to have some vein mapping done in her legs and an assessment done as to whether she needed to have any sort of stripping, or other kind of therapy done. We were waiting around for two months for her insurance to approve the procedure and she was finally able to get in before the end of the year.
Thursday she went in to have a vein burned and yanked out. She ended up with 14 different incisions. she will need to wear compression stockings now for the next 3 weeks. She said that with the other surgeries she has had, this one was by far the most painful.
As soon as we got home she had to sit with her leg up and let it rest. After an hour or so I had to check her dressings and they were seeping blood all over. I changed them and I wasn't prepared for the amount of blood. I thought there would be a little bloody gauze, but this was different than just a little blood. As I pulled the dressings off the change them, they were dripping blood. The girls were freaked and went running. Obviously they won't have a career in teh medical field.
After changing the dressings a couple of times throughout the day I think we have things under control. So now it is just rest and healing. Tuesday the sutures come out so we'll see how things are progressing then. Check back for updates.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas Day
This year we broke with recent tradition and stayed home. The last two years, maybe three, we had taken the girls to see a movie on Christmas Day. This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to see (not to mention the fact that I didn't feel like going outside) so we stayed in and watched a movie on DVD.
I picked Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp. Yeah, I know it is an old movie, but it is one I had never seen, but one I had always wanted to see. I think Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor and some of his early roles I think are his best. I thought it was hilarious. I was laughing all through it, Kris and the girls not so much. The girls didn't get it at all. And Kris hated the fact that it was in black and white.
I know Martin Landau was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal if Bela Lugosi, but I don't remember if he actually won it. I think he gave a great performance. Overall, I give it a B. the campy acting is perfect for the period, and Johnny Depp, I think, really nails the mannerisms seen in some of those old, schlock movies of the 50's.
I picked Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp. Yeah, I know it is an old movie, but it is one I had never seen, but one I had always wanted to see. I think Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor and some of his early roles I think are his best. I thought it was hilarious. I was laughing all through it, Kris and the girls not so much. The girls didn't get it at all. And Kris hated the fact that it was in black and white.
I know Martin Landau was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal if Bela Lugosi, but I don't remember if he actually won it. I think he gave a great performance. Overall, I give it a B. the campy acting is perfect for the period, and Johnny Depp, I think, really nails the mannerisms seen in some of those old, schlock movies of the 50's.
Nutcracker
As was previously stated, Alison got a nutcracker for Christmas. She was so excited to get it. Sarah and Alison both have nutcrackers but Sarah obviously has more and Ali wasn't happy about it. And this one is bigger than all of Sarah's and sparkly.
This one is now her favorite.
This one is now her favorite.
Merry Christmas
Santa visited the Hahn house yesterday though with Kris working the girls had to wait to open their presents. Sarah didn't have much of a problem but Alison was bouncing off the walls. She went over every gift under the tree and separated hers, and Sarah's. She also made sure to count how many were for her and how many there were for Sarah (it was 11-4 by the way). And she made sure to let Sarah know it as well.
Luckily, Kris got home from work early so Alison didn't have to wait as long as I originally told her. Sarah's gifts consisted of a netbook set-up (which was the netbook, carrying case, and other accessories). Alison got a new nutcracker (more on that shortly), a couple of new outfits, a game (Sorry Sliders), a couple of Zoobles, a couple of DS games and a game for the Wii (Monopoly).
All in all, Santa was very good the the girls and they were very happy and grateful.
Christmas Eve
This year we went to spend Christmas Eve with Kris's family. It used to be a tradition but we haven't done it in a few years as people are getting older and have their own families. However, this year we went to a nursing home for Christmas Eve. Kris's aunt had a stroke around Halloween and has been in a wheelchair as her right side is still paralyzed. She has also lost her ability to speak. And a week before, Kris's cousin (the son of the aunt who had the stroke) had to have an emergency appendectomy. Boy, talk about some bad luck!
It was really nice, and just about everyone in Kris's family showed up. I think there was only one cousin who didn't make it, but then again they never make it. I am pretty sure Kris and the girls enjoyed themselves, and it was good to see Kris's aunt. It was hard to see her in that condition, but I think at least she knew what was going on and recognize everyone. I hope she recovers at least a little bit, though I am sure it is going to be a long road.
It was really nice, and just about everyone in Kris's family showed up. I think there was only one cousin who didn't make it, but then again they never make it. I am pretty sure Kris and the girls enjoyed themselves, and it was good to see Kris's aunt. It was hard to see her in that condition, but I think at least she knew what was going on and recognize everyone. I hope she recovers at least a little bit, though I am sure it is going to be a long road.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Last Day
Today was the last day of school before the Christmas break and for Alison that meant it was time for her class Christmas party. My holidays for work were the 23rd and 24th, so since I was off Alison wanted me to come to her school with Kris. Kris, as co-room parent, was helping run the party, so I figured I would go since I didn't have anything else to do. Besides, Ali asked me to come along.
Boy, talk about some controlled chaos! There were two activities the kids were doing. Making ornaments out of some jingle bells and pipe cleaners, and decorating Christmas cookies. Once they were done with that they played a game, and did some fun puzzles. But I realize that I could never have been an elementary school teacher!
Boy, talk about some controlled chaos! There were two activities the kids were doing. Making ornaments out of some jingle bells and pipe cleaners, and decorating Christmas cookies. Once they were done with that they played a game, and did some fun puzzles. But I realize that I could never have been an elementary school teacher!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Pabst Mansion
Alison got to go the Pabst Mansion today for Girl Scouts. I've always wanted to go see it. I remember seeing it years ago on America's Castles on A&E, and I used to go past it every day on my way to class when I was going to Marquette.
A couple of days ago one of the local news stations did a story on how they decorate it for the holidays and the curator said it takes them a month to get all the Christmas decorations up. Ali really liked it. Her favorite rooms were the Nutcracker room, two of the children's rooms, and the servant's dining room.
The Nutcracker room had what seemed liked 1000 nutcrackers (Alison's guess). Right now she has a thing for nutcrackers, they are her favorite holiday decoration. She liked the servant's dining room because she thought it was just cool that there were two dining rooms in the house. "You just never see that" is what she told me. And she thought the big doll house in children's room was also very cool, though it was in a big glass box apparently.
After the tour, they had a craft where they made paper dolls and a snack... turnips. The person at the Pabst Mansion thought they should experience what it would have been like to have a snack from the 1800's. Ali said that she doesn't think she would like snacks from back then. Then they got to have their real snack. After their real snack, they got a chance to use the bathroom, which was like it would have been in the period, except that the plumbing actually worked now. Ali thought that the bathroom was sort of silly, but it was the bathroom that people used when they were coming to meet the Pabsts so in that way she thought it was sort of neat.
A couple of days ago one of the local news stations did a story on how they decorate it for the holidays and the curator said it takes them a month to get all the Christmas decorations up. Ali really liked it. Her favorite rooms were the Nutcracker room, two of the children's rooms, and the servant's dining room.
The Nutcracker room had what seemed liked 1000 nutcrackers (Alison's guess). Right now she has a thing for nutcrackers, they are her favorite holiday decoration. She liked the servant's dining room because she thought it was just cool that there were two dining rooms in the house. "You just never see that" is what she told me. And she thought the big doll house in children's room was also very cool, though it was in a big glass box apparently.
After the tour, they had a craft where they made paper dolls and a snack... turnips. The person at the Pabst Mansion thought they should experience what it would have been like to have a snack from the 1800's. Ali said that she doesn't think she would like snacks from back then. Then they got to have their real snack. After their real snack, they got a chance to use the bathroom, which was like it would have been in the period, except that the plumbing actually worked now. Ali thought that the bathroom was sort of silly, but it was the bathroom that people used when they were coming to meet the Pabsts so in that way she thought it was sort of neat.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Blizzard
After Sarah's competiton, we decided to drive my mother back to the Valley. The forecast was for a rain snow mix and with her flight leaving on Sunday afternoon I didn't know if there would be enough time for her to get up there Sunday morning if the roads were still crummy. We called my brother and we decided to meet him halfway, in Fond du lac. It was raining when we left and when we got to just south of the Hwy 33 exit the rain turned to sleet and then to all snow. The road conditions quickly deteriorated and we went from driving 65 mph when we left to as slow as 20 mph because of the snow.
I apparently wasn't driving fast enough for one clown who decided to try and pass me, yet as soon as he got into the left lane he dropped his speed to 30-35 mph, which is what we were doing. I was following behind a semi, and was having a pretty good go driving in his tire tracks, but this guy who passed me was driving through fresh, slushy snow. He was fishtailing, and he would speed up, then slow down again. I was just waiting for him to ditch it.
I finally let the guy have enough room and he pulled in front of me (I was purposely not giving him any room just for being a jag-off). But then I decided to pull around him (and the truck) just south of Fond du lac.
The drive back was just as scary since there was less traffic heading south and no tracks to drive in. Going north we saw three cars in the ditch, but heading back south we only saw one car and tracks of one car that had been pulled out. As soon as we got to that spot just south of Hwy 33, everything changed again. It was like going through a door because all of a sudden there was no snow, no ice, just rain. So overall, it was a nice little adventure, but one that the girls I am sure won't want to repeat.
I apparently wasn't driving fast enough for one clown who decided to try and pass me, yet as soon as he got into the left lane he dropped his speed to 30-35 mph, which is what we were doing. I was following behind a semi, and was having a pretty good go driving in his tire tracks, but this guy who passed me was driving through fresh, slushy snow. He was fishtailing, and he would speed up, then slow down again. I was just waiting for him to ditch it.
I finally let the guy have enough room and he pulled in front of me (I was purposely not giving him any room just for being a jag-off). But then I decided to pull around him (and the truck) just south of Fond du lac.
The drive back was just as scary since there was less traffic heading south and no tracks to drive in. Going north we saw three cars in the ditch, but heading back south we only saw one car and tracks of one car that had been pulled out. As soon as we got to that spot just south of Hwy 33, everything changed again. It was like going through a door because all of a sudden there was no snow, no ice, just rain. So overall, it was a nice little adventure, but one that the girls I am sure won't want to repeat.
Oak Creek Invite
Yesterday was the Oak Creek Invitational for Sarah's cheer team. They had their exhibition performance at the Indian Invite in the Falls a couple of weeks prior, and Kris and I were a little underwhelmed. This time they had added a few more elements to their routine, though I would say that they were definitely not the best team there. But they were much better than their previous performance.
Oak Creek Invitational from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.
My mom was in town so she got to come along as well to see Sarah cheer. I don't know how much she liked sitting in a gym for four and a half hours listening to a bunch of girls yell and listening to loud, very bass heavy music. I could barely do it.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Christmas Cards
It is Christmas Card time again. Kris was busy addressing them this weekend, so watch your mail for your Hahn family Christmas Card.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Murphy's Law
Again, I spent the weekend doing a couple of simple home fix ups. Oh wait, did I say simple?
Saturday Kris asked me to fix the back door. The threshold was old and was a little drafty. I had bought a new threshold to install with a seal, and just like the front door that I did a couple of weeks ago, I should have figured it would be anything but simple.
A couple of weeks ago I tried fixing a little draft under the front door. Well it turned into a two day affair. I was originally going to put a sweep on the bottom of the door, that turned into replacing the entire threshold and putting a door sweep in the inside of the door. It was one thing after another, but I finally got it done, though I still need to replace some of the weather stripping around the door frame.
Well I tried to take what I learned with the front door and apply that to fixing the back door. The one thing I thought I would be able to get away with was just cutting it to the size of the doorway. The front door needed to have notches cut out to fit the bottom of the frame. so the back door went in pretty easily. but then I ended up having to cut out small notches. I also found out that the threshold is slightly angled because the laminate floor that we put in a few years back is a bit higher than the adjoining threshold.
Well to make a long story short, it got screwed down, but then when the door was closed, it dragged across the rubber seal, pulling it out of the threshold. At first I wanted to try planing he bottom of the door, but after screwing around with it and moving it to the basement to work on it (and banging it into the walls and scraping/chipping the paint on teh walls) I decided to simply install the door sweep on the inside to stop any drafts and I would try fixing the seal in the threshold later. At least this only took me about three and a half hours of playing around as opposed to the two days it took to try and fix the front door.
So, why is it the simple fixes are never simple? It makes me think twice about any other home improvement projects. If something as simple as fixing a draft around a door, how am I ever going to be able to do anything else, such as renovating the bathroom or the kitchen?
Saturday Kris asked me to fix the back door. The threshold was old and was a little drafty. I had bought a new threshold to install with a seal, and just like the front door that I did a couple of weeks ago, I should have figured it would be anything but simple.
A couple of weeks ago I tried fixing a little draft under the front door. Well it turned into a two day affair. I was originally going to put a sweep on the bottom of the door, that turned into replacing the entire threshold and putting a door sweep in the inside of the door. It was one thing after another, but I finally got it done, though I still need to replace some of the weather stripping around the door frame.
Well I tried to take what I learned with the front door and apply that to fixing the back door. The one thing I thought I would be able to get away with was just cutting it to the size of the doorway. The front door needed to have notches cut out to fit the bottom of the frame. so the back door went in pretty easily. but then I ended up having to cut out small notches. I also found out that the threshold is slightly angled because the laminate floor that we put in a few years back is a bit higher than the adjoining threshold.
Well to make a long story short, it got screwed down, but then when the door was closed, it dragged across the rubber seal, pulling it out of the threshold. At first I wanted to try planing he bottom of the door, but after screwing around with it and moving it to the basement to work on it (and banging it into the walls and scraping/chipping the paint on teh walls) I decided to simply install the door sweep on the inside to stop any drafts and I would try fixing the seal in the threshold later. At least this only took me about three and a half hours of playing around as opposed to the two days it took to try and fix the front door.
So, why is it the simple fixes are never simple? It makes me think twice about any other home improvement projects. If something as simple as fixing a draft around a door, how am I ever going to be able to do anything else, such as renovating the bathroom or the kitchen?
First Snow
We had our first snow of the year yesterday morning and as happens every year, people completely forget how to drive once the white stuff start falling. It isn't like it was a full scale blizzard, or that it came down quickly. We ended up with about 3 inches total over the course of about 10 hours. But yet there were tons of accidents.
I went into work early Saturday morning when there was only about an inch and a half on the ground and I saw one car in a ditch. Then, when I was driving home, I had to stop by the grocery store, so I was going over highway 45 north at Good Hope, and the cops had the on ramps closed. I found out this morning that the reason was that there were two 18-wheelers jack-knifed. Pretty bad I guess if you need to shut down the highway, and I guess it was shut down for about 5 hours.
Myself, I had two close calls. One woman was driving about 10-15 mph under the speed limit, and mind you this was with the snow clear and the road salted. I guess all that melted snow can be pretty dangerous. And then someone else almost hit me sliding through a stop sign. It would have helped had she not been on her cell phone at the time, but I guess no harm no foul.
I went into work early Saturday morning when there was only about an inch and a half on the ground and I saw one car in a ditch. Then, when I was driving home, I had to stop by the grocery store, so I was going over highway 45 north at Good Hope, and the cops had the on ramps closed. I found out this morning that the reason was that there were two 18-wheelers jack-knifed. Pretty bad I guess if you need to shut down the highway, and I guess it was shut down for about 5 hours.
Myself, I had two close calls. One woman was driving about 10-15 mph under the speed limit, and mind you this was with the snow clear and the road salted. I guess all that melted snow can be pretty dangerous. And then someone else almost hit me sliding through a stop sign. It would have helped had she not been on her cell phone at the time, but I guess no harm no foul.
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