Another update...

I went to the neurosurgeon today for a checkup. So far no changes from the original plan. I have another 4 weeks with the neck brace then I go back for a lot more Xrays without my neck brace. At that point we will have some more information about what will be happening with my rehab. I may not need physical therapy, but it'll probably be another month after I get the neck brace off before I will be ready to go back to work. I'm going stir crazy!!

I decided that in my time off now I am going to learn how to play the guitar! Eric is gonna let me use his acoustic guitar and I'm gonna teach myself with a little help from Eric. Anyway, the guitar lessons will help give me something to do besides just read and watch tv all the time. I have basically dominated MarioKart Wii now, so that isn't as time consuming for me. I am rated overall two stars and I have unlocked everything I can (I think) so now I just play live against people all over the world. That is fun, but the guitar will be sweet! I'm pretty excited to learn to play. It is a good thing I'll be around here for another couple of months too because Eric is going to be doing high schoo algebra this year so he will have a live in tutor for awhile :) Shawn is working now, so that is good for him. I'm sure in this house full of people he could use a break from my family! Sara will be moving into the dorms at Ball State in a couple of weeks, so that is pretty exciting for her. Also, Grandma and Grandpa Manning are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next weekend! That is really exciting for them. 50 years...WOW! I will try to take some pictures and post those after the party.

At the end of July Andrew was in town for a visit from California! The JLP was reunited for the weekend. Andrew's parents own a lakehouse up north of Ft. Wayne. We spend the weekend their. Everyone (except me) went tubing and on the wave runner. It was fun to watch them all though! We all got too much sun but we had a blast all being together. We tried to convince Andrew to move back home, but he is staying out in LA :( He came down to Muncie to hang out with Shawn and I one more time before he went back to LA. We miss him! Theresa had her graduation from Ball State last month. She actually finished last year but she needed to finish her exam to get her teachers license before she could officially graduate, so she has finally walked the graduation ceremony now. Last weekend Theresa moved to Indianapolis because she is starting her teaching job next week in Lebanon. Shawn helped her Dad and brother with the big stuff in the move and helped her get some stuff organized in the house. We're gonna try to go see her again this weekend before she starts teaching. Good Luck Theresa!

Cast off!!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I got my cast off!! I'm sorry I haven't reported much lately, but there really hasn't been much to report :( We are still in Muncie and it looks like I'll be wearing my neck brace for about 6 more weeks...so I'm still hoping for end of September or early October for going back to Chicago and back to work! It is so nice to have my cast off my arm, but it is still hard to use! The tendons are really tight and my wrist is really weak. I have a wrist brace that I can wear while I'm doing stuff so that my wrist has a little extra support because it hurts pretty bad when I move it around much. The wrist brace really helps. The doctor gave me some exercises I can do to strengthen my wrist and he said if I do them while I'm watching tv or something that my wrist should be fine once I get my neck resolved. I hope so!

Update

I thought I would give everyone an update on what is going on. I now have a cast on my right arm...they only splinted it at the hospital so the doc here in Muncie decided that a cast was needed. My neck brace is getting easier to deal with, but I am still in a lot of pain and have a very hard time getting comfortable. I sleep way more than usual, but seeing as all I can do is watch TV I guess sleeping isn't such a bad option.

Shawn went back to Oak Park on Tuesday to finish out the week at his job (which he hates to leave...I wish he didn't have to) and to get our stuff packed up. We will be moving back to Muncie while I recover. My doctors are here and there are a lot of people here that will be able to help Shawn with my care so it will just make more sense for us to be in Muncie. My parents still own the house in Muncie that my granparents were living in so they are gonna let us live there until I can go back to work. My familly will be driving up to Chicago this weekend to rent a Uhaul to bring all of my stuff and my Shawn back here.

I have been getting a lot of get well cards and many many messages with thoughts and prayers. Thank you all for caring so much about me, my family and my friends. I got a really awesome care package from Mimi today...I love all the stuff! Can't really play with my Play-doh though but I will!! Theresa is also starting to feel better and was finally feeling up to running some errands yesterday with her sister. So it looks like we will all get through this...it will just be a very challenging road, one that I would much rather have detoured! I have loved all the calls and emails! I will keep everyone updated!

Accident

So...I am going through a rough time right now. Friday Shawn and I drove to SB to pick up Theresa for my sis's graduation. We were so excited about the weekend...time off work and almost all of the JLP together (we alwayas miss you Andrew!). Plus...Sara was graduating high school! How exciting was that for her! I was so excited to be there for her and I got a new dress I was gonna wear and everything. We stopped for lunch in Rochester and I cursed the town again for my speeding ticket from last year then we started off again. We had stuff to do before graduation and Al would be arriving in Muncie right after his training that night. The happy mood of the changed suddenly when we we in an accident as we were driving south on 31. Someone was driving across at 16 and "apparently" didn't see us because they did not stop! We collided with them at pretty high speed. I had just slammed on the brakes, but seeing as the speed limit is 60 I was surely still going over 50 at impact because there was little time to react! I tried co turn the car to the right to see if we could avoid the crash, but we were too close and they came out of nowhere right in front of us. Shawn was in the backseat and managed to get out of the car after the accident. He noticed the car was smoking and thought it looked like T and I had gas on us so he pulled T out of the car and then someone pulled over to help him get me out because my door was banged up pretty bad. Neither T nor I were making any sense and we don't remember the crash or anything afterward until the paramedics were already working on us. T and I were taken by helicopter to Parkview in Ft. Wayne. Shawn had some scrapes and bruises and was really sore the next day, T has quite a gash on her leg and one crazy seat belt bruise, but thank goodness they are ok! I was so worried after the accident about them! I had been driving and they are two of the most important people in my world...I was devastated that they could have been injured! What I was not prepared for were my injuries! I have badly bruised/strained my left ankle (using a cane to walk), fractured my right wrist, have a wild and crazy seat belt bruise, airbag bruise on my nose and cheeck, and the kicker: fractured the top 2 vertebrae in my neck-the C1 and C2 vertebrae on te left side! At this time no surgery is required, I am walking with a cane and have direct instructions to be extremely careful at all times! I will bw wearing a neck collar 24 hours a day for the next 12 weeks and watching the progress of the healing. They have not yey ruled out needing traction in the form of a cervical Halo, but I really hope I can heal well without it. So, I am alive and ok, but this is gonna be a huge ordeal for me! I will be unable to work this whole time and I am sure physical therapy will be required after I get the brace off, so it could be the fall before I am able to get back to nursing! Shawn and I will probably be back in Muncie for my healing time, as much as we love Oak Park we can't afford to stay there with me not working plus I am gonna need a lot of help to care for myself for awhile and it would be easier for Shawn to have my mom and my family here to help. We would appreciate any spare thoughts and prayers as I recover and as T and Shawn get better too. I was released from the hospital yesterday and Mom brought me home to Farmland while we get things figured out. Shawn went yesterday to get all of our stuff out of the car and he has a picture of the damage, but I haven't wanted to see it yet, I'm gonna get some pictures today of my bruises today for Mimi so I will post those later. To all of you who read this: I love you all so much and I don't know what I would do without my family and friends...and of course my Shawn! He pulled T and I out of the car and called our families and he was right by my side for me (except they wouldn't let him come in the helicopter). This is gonna be a rough few months, but I will survive!

Tournaments...two of a kind!

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile...but I've not really been doing much. Shawn and I have been getting settled into our apartment and we really like it! We still haven't gotten around to taking pictures of Oak Park, but we'll get to it soon! I promise :)

On May 15th Eric was in Chicago for his band field trip and we were gonna try to meet up with him at Medieval Times. Shawn has always wanted to go I haven't been in a really long time, so we drove out to Schaumburg to meet up with his school group. Medieval Times was pretty cool...but not worth the money in my opinion. The food could have been way better, but it wasn't bad. They certainly are stingy with the drinks though! Practically had to beg for a refill of my soda! The show was pretty neat though...would have liked to have seen more of the actual battling between the knights but when the did joust it was cool. Shawn definitely wanted to be a knight when he left, so he did by a little wooded sword. Now I can pretend to kill him at home! Don't think its anything we'd like to go see again anytime soon, but we had a good time!

This past weekend Al and Theresa were up for a visit because Al was trying out for the NFL at one of the regional combines. The combine was in Naperville at North Central College. We had a really great time with them for the weekend, which we always do when we're all together, but it has been such a long time since we've really gotten to hang out we were really excited to see them! It was a pretty laid back weekend, considering Al had a lot on his mind and needed to rest up for the combine. The combine went REALLY well! Al did an awesome job! He exceeded or met all of the requirements for quarterback to reach the Elite Combine in California this June and the guy who runs the combines told Al that he was really impressed with his throwing and abilities. We just found out yesterday that Al did make it to the Elite Combine...so he's off to the tryouts in June. Shawn, Theresa and I are hoping we can go out with him for moral support (plus it would just be awesome) but due to money issues I think we're gonna have to sit home and be nervous instead! He'll do great though and hopefully one of the recruiters from the NFL will like him give him a job! We're hoping Chicago or Miami will take an interest (seeing has he's a quarterback and they both need quarterback!) but really any interest would be awesome for him!
On a side note...but an important side note...Shawn got a job! He is working at a camera shop here in Oak Park. It is actually just about a block and a half away, so it only takes him about 5 minutes to walk to work! So far he really likes it and I think it'll be really great for him! Yay! I'm working this weekend but we'll be home in Muncie next weekend for Sara's graduation. Anyone wants to see us while we're home, let one of us know!

A day at the zoo!

Yesterday, Shawn and I were sitting around eating breakfast trying to figure out how to spend our day together when I got the brilliant idea: Let's go to the zoo! So then we had to decide which zoo to go to. We live pretty close to the Brookfield Zoo, and I haven't been there for a REALLY long time, so that is what we decided to to. We had a blast! It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day with no rain and few clouds. It turned out to be a great day!

There were two baby camels! One of the babies was born this past March and one just a few weeks ago in April! They were so cute playing together. This one was trying to socialize with daddy...how sweet!






There were about 5 giraffes in this enclosure. This one was moving all over and he kept doing really funny looking things, but every time I would try to get a picture he would stop! I was getting so annoyed! I had never seen a giraffe try to bend down to get something off the ground and it is hilarious! I guess there knees must not bend like ours do cause he had his legs spread so wide...It was really cute, but no picture :(









There were two big elephants that I could see. They are so huge! The other elephant didn't have any tusks, but he was off to the side eating hay or something off the ground. It was so neat to stand there and watch him eat using his trunk. An elephant's trunk is truly amazing! They are able to use their trunks to do some things that really seem to require a lot of fine motor like skills! I was basically in awe. There was a display that has a long tube that is meant to demonstrate how heavy an elephant's trunk is...I couldn't believe it! I never figured how heavy it would be!

Oh...the Monkey house! I could have spent all day in their! The Primate exhibit was divided into several areas based on the Continent. Each area had primates that are indigenous to those areas. This little monkey was looking right at us and he was only about 5 feet away from our heads! It was a really open exhibit too with birds flying right over our heads. In each area all the different types of primates were able to interact with each other, although they didn't really seem to. Each different specie seemed to only play with each other. There were some other types of animals mixed in as well. In one of the areas there was a pygmy hippo swimming while a medium sized monkey was sitting on a branch right over the water! That was really neat! The Gorilla exhibit was at the end, but it was worth it! There were a lot of gorillas! There was one that was much smaller than the others so it must have been a juvenile...but I'm not sure of the age at all. I don't know if it was a boy or a girl, but it was really playful! He was running all over the trees trying to get the other gorillas to play with him...but they weren't really interested! Most of the males were just lounging around, but they looked really comfy! It was a lot of fun to watch them all play!
Of course, Shawn wanted to make sure that we saw the aquatic animals...so we went to the dolphin show as well as the new exhibit called Stingray Bay. The dolphin show was really great, as they usually are. There were 5 dolphins in the family, the mother with 4 of her children. Dolphins are so smart! Stingray Bay was really neat too...it was basically a small pond that had two different types of stingrays you could touch as well as horseshoe crabs and two types of small sharks. The sharks were hiding near the waterfall though were you couldn't reach them, so we weren't able to touch those :( We did get to touch the stingrays though, and that was really cool! They are really soft and the smaller ones were really friendly! It was almost like some of them liked to be petted. They would come right to you and there was one that kinda stopped when I started touching it and stayed there for a minute. That was pretty cool! It would have been really freaking cool to touch a shark, but oh well. Maybe some other time! The exhibit with the penguins was pretty small, but you were able to get really close to the penguins and it was open so there was a huge, thick piece of glass between you and the penguins. That was really neat. The could swim up really close to you...obviously it was far enough a way that you couldn't touch them, but still it was cool!
We made sure to see the big cats and the bears as well, but they were mostly just laying around being lazy! Most of them were sleeping...some were sleeping where we could see them, but most were hiding out of view :( We could at least see all the big cats, but the bears were almost all hiding away! Anyway, our trip to the zoo was wonderful and we had a great day! Just one more picture of Shawn that I absolutely love!

Welcome to Oak Park

We've been here in Oak Park, Illinois for about a week now. The apartment is really nice and just the right size for us. The street we live on runs right through an area of town with all kinds of restaurants, shops, a movie theater, several coffee shops and ice cream places, and we are walking distance from three grocery stores! We also only live about 2 blocks from the cta train that we can take right into Chicago! I think we've finally got stuff settled in the apartment and have cable hooked up.

I started work this past Monday and I worked three days in a row so that I would have some time off to get settled. The hospital is nice and only 4 miles from my apartment. It is going to a slight adjustment because the hospital uses paper charting still, which is kind of strange. I've only ever worked with computer charting and this is kind of an old system. I'm getting used to it though. The management is better though and I know that I will be fine. They are short on staff so I will be able to work overtime if I want. Shawn had a few interviews this past week, but the one job that seemed to fit the best and where he thought he'd be offered a job he declined because the hours were going to suck. He has two more interviews tomorrow though so hopefully one of those will work out.

The first night we were here we went to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria with my Dad, Ana, and my stepbrother Niko. Lou's is my favorite pizza ever...so I had to make sure that Shawn experienced it pretty quickly! My cousin Tommy's First Communion was on Saturday so Shawn got to meet most of my Dad's family. Not everyone was there, but I did get to see my family so that was fun. Shawn and I went into Chicago today. We went to Millennium Park and saw Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. We also walked up and down the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue. Oddly enough, we ran into two of our friends from Ball State near Watertower Plaza. Crazy! Here are some pictures from our day.