embarrassing

Yesterday we had to travel back to Duke for a follow up MRI for Erin. After a rocky start, we made it to Durham with 2 minutes to spare. {A special shout out to R and her girls & my v'ter, J who watched the Wardlings for us. You gals are spectacular!} We found a great parking spot in the Duke parking lot too! I am so glad that we made it on time, because the Radiology dept. was backed up and had we been just 5 minutes later, we would have had to have waited much, much longer than we did; which would have been extremely hard on our fasting Erin. Once Erin was back having her MRI, there was this toddler, barely 18 months old who was having a scan done and was so hungry and thirsty that she screamed for nearly an hour straight. She screamed herself to sleep. Erin did really well. She did wake up when she had 20 minutes left and she toughed it out without sedation. I am so very proud of Erin! Being in the MRI scanner for 2 1/2 hours is so difficult and she did beautifully!!

Today was a blood drive at church. One of my New Year's resolutions is to donate blood twice this year. This being @ church was the perfect opportunity to go. I walked in, filled out my questions and donated blood. I bleed fast, so it really didn't take long to fill up the bag. My parents were there, along with some dear friends from our old ward in Asheboro...{you know who you are! :)} Everything went well, until I sat @ table. I was chatting with one of the gals on my visiting teaching list and all of a sudden, I felt very light headed. Kudos to the American Cross people. They were there lickity split and moved me behind a partition thing, blew a fan on me and gave me more juice and crackers. Talk about embarrassing. Plus -I totally freaked my parents out. Way to go me!

Once I had leveled out, I could rejoin the world @ the table. There, I heard more of 'Ashley's accidents.' {Did I mention that my Mom and Dad were there telling them? :)} It was kinda fun to go down memory lane. I have been quite accident prone in the past years. I started to think about some, while my Mom and Dad were telling a few stories @ the table. I've been in 2 bus accidents, several car accidents (none while I was driving). I have fallen every time I have been pregnant, more than once. I have fallen down our stairs once, since moving into the Brown house and twice in our old town house. (That was twice in 24 hours BTW.) If I stand up too quickly, I totally black out...do this @ least once a day and have fainted once hitting my head on our shower. I cut my thumb open while opening a can of beef stew when Clyde and I were engaged, requiring 5 stitches. This wasn't the first time or the last of cutting my hands while opening canned food. I had my 1st kidney stone @ the beach, after my HS graduation. fun. I had my 2nd kidney stone while pregnant with Josh. I stepped on a sewing machine needle, breaking it off into my foot, requiring surgery for removal. One of the accidents Mom was telling about happened while I was a freshman in HS @ the GGO. Let's just say that an ambulance, a lawyer, and a big concussion were involved...as big as my hand, along with the lump, not to mention the nasty abrasions that went from my knees to my hips. Lovely. Plus apparently a boy that I grew up with was trying to convince me that he was my boyfriend.

Then of course, in pure Ashley style, the near fainting today, when donating a simple pint of blood. I have always thought that I had donated enough blood in childbirth, but it was nagging @ me to donate, since I am not pregnant or nursing a baby. My favorite quote of the day was said by a fella, one of the volunteers from my folks' ward, "Don't sit by Ashley, she faints." I will fulfill my New Years resolution of donating @ least one more time this year. I'll just come in to the donation center with an asterick beside my name..."Fainter." :)

Clyde had a BIG test today. We hope that he did good. He always does...I love you honey!