John Dee.com ::. Journal .::

October 25-
    Boy oh boy, will I ever be happy to get past this month. About 3 hours after writing the little entry for the 19th, I started to feel pretty bad pretty quickly, so Nora drove me down to the ER at Portage Hospital and I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my right lung as well as having a bunch of fluid in my right lung. Portage stabilized me and shipped me off to Marquette General, where I spent the rest of the week. I did get to go home Friday and have actually been feeling pretty good since Thursday, so I think I am finally on the mend. I still have two drainage tubes in me and they will come out next week, but this is the best I have felt since first being operated on October 2nd. I have actually spent all but 5 days of this entire month in the hospital. Not fun.
    Before I go on, I would just like to thank my beautiful wife for taking such good care of me these past three+ weeks and for handling so much that was on her plate. Not only did she have to take care of me, but Grace, the pups, the house... everything. I think she has averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night this month, but has kept going and when things got really tough, she just dug her heels into the ground and pushed her way through it. I am one lucky cookie to have found such a wonderful person and we both feel that we have been put through the ringer and back this month, but will only emerge stronger when it is all finally over. So thanks honey, you are the best and I love you!!!
    We had the trail work session this past Friday and Saturday. I was hoping to at least show up for the dinner on Saturday and thank everyone for coming up, but seeing as though I just got home Friday afternoon and the flu is running around up here, I thought it wise to just stay in and let my body rest. It has really been through a lot this month. But I really to appreciate all of you that made the trek up here to work on the trails. I was told that it was even more successful than last year and I sure wish that I could have been there. It is actually a lot of fun and I would have loved to meet everyone and thank them personally.
    It feels great to be home and to also feel better with each passing day. Needless to say I really do not have much to write about as I spent so much time in the hospital, but Nora has taken some cute shots of Grace in the past few days, so I can share them with you. This first one was taken last night. I held Gracie for the first time in over three weeks. Talk about a nice feeling!
    Today Nora took Grace outside and put her in a little rocking chair that my mom had at her house and was just going to toss out, but asked us if we wanted it first and we said yes. Anyway, it was chilly today, but Grace seemed to be enjoying herself. There were a few serious moments as well and Nora captured this one. Grace might just end up being a photo model as she really is good at posing. In this one she was asked to give us that cute, but mischievous baby look. At one point during the photo session, Grace decided to become a bubble machine. Here is one that was taken from a little further back and you can see how color coordinated she was. Here she is again pondering something serious. Probably just exactly what was the meaning of that second to last segment in the Baby Einstein DVD. After the demanding photo session this afternoon, she decided to change into something more comfortable and watch the next Baby Einstein DVD.
    I guess that about covers it for this one.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-

This business directly sponsors johndee.com

October 19-
    Well, last Monday night I was re-admitted to the hospital due to a setback with the surgery. I just got home late yesterday and the doctors want me to take it easy, so no entry this week. Hopefully I can snap some pics this week and put out a short one next week.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
October 11-
Welcome to October everyone! Even though this isn't John, I figured I'd stick to his typical greeting. John is recovering from some surgery he had last week and has asked me to write to you all this evening. I'm sure you are wondering about John and I can tell you he is home and trying to get as much rest as he can. He's also developed a chest cold that hasn't helped matters. But, I'm sure he will be back to his old self before too long!
    Often John will ask me to write a journal and my reply is always the same...."no thanks". I'll do anything to try to help him with his workload but that is one thing I really don't like to do. I believe it's mainly because John is such a great writer and I'm well....not so much. But, considering the circumstance I agreed to write tonight's entry. I know many of you read the journal strictly for the weather updates and future forecasts and I'm afraid tonight's journal will have none of that. Sorry!
    Actually, I do have a little something to share with you all, and that is the first snow picture of the 2009-2010 season. I really wanted to get Gracie out for her first official time in the snow but with John not up to par things have been a little scattered around the Dee house. I was able to take her to the window though and show her the snow. She wasn't all that impressed to tell you the truth and really could have used these in the last picture. Poor child doesn't have a chance for a normal life in this house! These are the type of pictures that will one day be so fun to look back on and get a giggle out of them.
    As you can tell this journal will be probably pretty short and I'm going to chat about what I know best these days and that is our sweet little Gracie! She is so a hoot and growing like a weed. It's fun to watch her grow but a big part of me wants to tell her to, "slow down already with all this growing". Hard to believe that she is already 2 months old. She has her 2 month check up tomorrow and I'm really anxious to see what she weighs. My back tells me it must be close to 10 1/2 lbs.
    As I type, Grace is hanging out in her Babybjorn (thanks John and Donna), quiet as a mouse! I'm not exactly ready to say that the colic has passed but I am very hopeful. This will be night 4 that she hasn't started at 5 pm with her colic time. I still need to hold her and she might cry for a few minutes but nothing like she was a few weeks ago. Actually, she falls asleep around 5 pm and sleeps straight through what was her colic time. It's a miracle that she still sleeps at night with the long power nap right before bed. One of the first nights that Gracie cried so much, John decided to take her out to the shop to show her all the fun things in there. It wasn't long before he had her here. That's one happy daddy! And before long, you guessed it....she's looking for the nitrous button! I believe I'm in trouble!!
    I know John told you all about Gracie and her first smiles. Well, not only is she doing this a lot, she is very close to laughing right out loud. She talks and babbles like crazy too! It's fun to see how much she notices now also. She studies people and has a very serious look about her at times. I often wonder just what is she thinking about. Can't be a lot as she's only 2 months right?
   Well, that's all from me for tonight. I'm sure John will be back next Sunday and maybe we'll have some pictures that aren't of Gracie...lol....The colors here are really beautiful and I'm sure that we'll get a drive in and have some pictures to share with you all next time. So for now....
Good night from Gracie and the Keweenaw....
-JD-