Rayden Greg Dana.

Here are the photo's that I promised of Rayden as soon as I got some.

Rayden. 07/08/09

Greg, Kara, and Baby Rayden

Proud daddy

Look at that cute Pout!

He loves Momma. Already Smiling

SO Tiny!!

This Monkey thing was Greg's when he was little

Jared's Surgery

Going into surgery. He was so nervous!

Right after surgery and trying to eat. Poor Guy!

Lisa the Therapy Dog! So Cute!

All of his Incisions

Jared went into surgery at 10:00 monday the 6th . The procedure he had done is called Lap Nissen fundoplication it's a surgical procedure to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. During fundoplication surgery, the upper curve of the stomach (the fundus) is wrapped around the esophagus and sewn into place so that the lower portion of the esophagus passes through a small tunnel of stomach muscle. This surgery strengthens the valve between the esophagus and stomach (lower esophageal sphincter), which stops acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily. This allows the esophagus to heal. the gastric fundus (upper part) of the stomach is wrapped, or plicated, around the lower end of the esophagus and stitched in place, reinforcing the closing function of the lower esophageal sphincter: Whenever the stomach contracts, it also closes off the esophagus instead of squeezing stomach acids into it. The procedure lasted until 1:30, I was able to walk with him to his shared room and sit by his side.

He was very fiesty coming out of the anesthesia as I warned them he would be. There was so much pain on his face it was so sad, he keep swearing and demanding that he had more meds. One moment he would be cussing at something and the next he would be snoring as he was coming out. I was informed that he stopped breathing while he was under and they had him on high watch until further notice. His lungs weren't filling to the capacity that they should have been. It should be at 100+ but it kept dipping below 89 and then the vital machine would go off and the team would rush in. It only led to startling him and more fiestyness. They ended up putting him on oxygen only an hour after waking up. One nurse actually told him to watch his mouth.." story of my life at home so tico doesn't pick it up ;)" we did a few laps of walking around the ward to release the pressure in his stomach but it didn't seem to help. He was having trouble urinating so there was talk of a cathatur but he pulled through and narrowly missed that pain.

Our night didn't go very well. Jared's pain stayed up in the 7/8 range most of the night even though he was getting a double dose of morphine every 2 hours. Around 11:30 he started to spit up something and the doctors had to come poke around to make sure nothing burst or went wrong. That continued to happen until about 3 am. So between painful yet unsucessful trips to the restroom, people in and out all night for both jared and his roomie, and pleas for pain meds we had a very long night with little rest. Tuesday morning he was allowed to finally have some water but couldn't swollow. Even though he was swollen that wasn't normal. More frustration with nurses. We would call for them to ask a question or for Jared to get more medicine and they would ignore his page from upwards of 40 minutes to an hour. Then they would come in and say "oh did you want something?" While hovering in the doorway and then running out as if we were contagious. It was a long day, he finally got down some liquid at 2:30 and has been slowly improving from there. Finally at 7:30 in the evening it was announced to us that he would be staying an extra night. I decided to come home because Tico was all alone and didn't have anything to eat all day. I needed some good rest too. So He is at the hospital right now and from our last phone call still is not feeling any better. We will see what tomorrow brings. They said that he is very behind on his meal plan so I think they might hold him until he is able to eat something solid and at least have some type of Bowel movement. Poor guy! And yet through all of this he still wants a cigarette...It's so annoying!

Wednesday 8th at 11:00 I drove back to San Diego to sit with Jared until he was released from the hospital. We ended up waiting around until 3:00 before they finished all of the paper work for him to come home. He is still having a hard time with pain and using the restroom but he is doing a little better. Glad to be back in the comfort of his own home though, that's for sure!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

He's Here!

My brother became a daddy tonight!

His baby was born tonight at 10:09 pm.

His name is Rayden Greg Dana.

Weighing in at 6 pounds 9 0z.

and 18 inches in length.

I can't wait to come home and meet him. I'm an auntie again! 6 times over now!

In other exciting news...Jared's sister is also in labor and we thought she would be having a little girl today. Nothing yet but I will post that later.

Pictures coming soon readers!

My Patriotic Nails...

I am so proud of them! It only took me about an hour.

Happy Independence Day!!!

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July filled with BBQ's and fireworks, But I also hope that you take some time out of your busy day to remember what this day is all about. Not the hamburgers and sparklers but your military men and woman who have made the ultimate sacrifice for you. I just want to say that I am so proud to be an american and I am so proud of people like my husband who make my freedom possible each day. I now tear up at the sound of our national anthem and see a flag waving in the breeze. Because I now know just how hard that life is to make that available to everyone. I am so bitter about the military because of our experience over the past 4 years but I have grown so much and I appreciate the little things a lot more. I am the most patriotic than I have been in my whole life and I hope that you all feel the same. Have a great day and remember the reason for the season. Pictures Later!

Breaking News...

Jared will be officially out the Marines in 3 months! Bad news though...We will most likely be put on a medical hold because he still has 1 or 2 more surgeries in his near future. I was just thinking about it though today and I am so glad that we are almost finished.

Other news...Jared goes in for Throat surgery on monday the 6th. So we will be at the hospital on the 6th and 7th. I will keep everyone posted from my phone.

Much Love Readers!

A family in need.

My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time.

We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FBI, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee.

We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate.
Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?

Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)
Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:

OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076
Fax # : (520) 629-1849 attn: Olivia McClure
E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!

How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:
PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook...whatever you can think of.Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!
GO TEAM RYAN HESS!

(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message!)

Your Wish is My Command.

So our letter was sent, read, reviewed in a few different offices, and now they are sending it to the Marines in D.C. Things are getting started and we are just preparing for the can of worms to open. I have a feeling that things are going to get messy. Fasten your seat belts and hang on for dear life!!!

Katsu.

Friday night we went on a double date with Jamie and brian to Katsu. It's a japanese seafood and steakhouse where they cook everything in front of you on the grill. It was pretty cool and really fun. I love Jamie..she is the bestest friend ever! Brian wasn't to happy that we ruined their original plan for date night..Sorry Brian! but oh well, we had a great time. We enjoy hanging out with you guys! I wish he would like us more :) Anywho here are some pictures of our fun night.

Enough is Enough

I figured maybe I better explain the letter I mentioned in my last post. As you all know we have had a bad go at the military. It basically boils down to 4 years of straight up Hazing! They rather enjoy making our life a living hell and so they wont let us get a way from them a switch to another company. what I don't understand is that if they hate us that much you would think that they would be dying for us to leave but it's the exact opposite. All of this hate towards us led to lots of depression, weight gain, and arguments about nothing. Jared dreads having to wake up and go to base every single day and when he comes home and tells me what they did to him that day I just break down and cry because I can't help. Well after almost 4 years we decided to say enough is enough!!!!! SO we are writing a letter to congress as a cry for help because no one higher in rank in the marines will. I hope it gets some attention and we get our just rewards. Anywho that is a breif summary of the letter.

Zebra's

So last night I painted my nails while we were writing our letter to congress and decided to go a little wild. I think they turned out really nice and wanted to share with everyone. Maybe when I get some time I will put a whole slide show of my work. I hope you guys like them as much as I do!

Oh the ups and downs of life

Lately I have been dragging my feet at updating my blog. I just have been feeling rather down...life was feeling well...inadequate. I didn't want to write while I was upset and later regret it only to wind up deleting the post so I opted to just ignore it. but basically here is our life update.

Jared has been having things rough as usual with the Marines. I can't wait until they don't have entire control over our lives! Being in the military is a wonderful thing that most people are so proud of and just can't image life without that experience *usually tending to be a good one* However we have not been that fortunate. It has been a shit storm for us since day one. Most of you readers know Jared, and he is a great guy full of love. But for some reason we have been viewed as the shitbags no matter what we do. So in turn they treat him like that. It just breaks my heart because no one wants to see the one they love go through that and not being able to do anything. But I have to just sit back and let it happen. I so badly want to go tell some people where to go and how to get there ending with a nice big punch in the face but I can't. I don't know about all of you but would you not be emotionally attached since this is the life you have to face each day? Well since I am, Jared gets upset and feels like he can't talk to me about his day because it is always so bad and they treat him so poorly. They are trying to make up excuses to not promote him even though he should have been promoted 3 years ago. It's just very frustrating. Dispite all of the negative in this experience some positive has come from it as well. Jared and I have grown so much. I have learned to be independent and live alone yet still manage our entire family, bills, and life in general. I HATE HATE HATE when people complain that their husbands have to leave for a few weeks at a time even though they still get to talk to them at night on the phone. And I hate when people are like "Oh I miss him so much" ok so when was the last time you saw or heard from him? " oh yesterday!" AAhhh that eeks me. lol I am just bitter I guess, but that isn't that bad. Jared goes in for his next surgery on July 6th and they will have to keep him over night just to make sure that everything goes well. My poor Boo...he has been under the knife so many times within the last year. But anyways that is my rank for the day about the Marines lol Sorry readers.

Things for me have been alright. I have been really busy with work lately. I think that another reason I have been so down was because I was feeling very underappreciated at work and then with the military consuming our life it was just hard to stay on the top end. I fell to the bottom and like always I am working my way back to the top. I still have been going to the gym almost every day. I make a point to go at least 4 times a week. It's such a great feeling when I walk into the gym and they all greet me by my first name and ask how things are going. *that goes to show you how much I am there* So far the scale isn't tipping the way I would like it to but I have lost inches and I have been told that there is improvement even though I don't feel like there is. But Hey if you can't tone it...Tan it! And I certainly do! I have also been sewing lately. I have made a few baby blankets. One for a friend of mine and one for my brother's baby. He's due July 26th so that is exciting.

Tico is doing well. He learns new words daily it seems like. He has a lot of pin feathers coming in so he has been a little fiesty lately and when Jared left for Seattle he grabbed my hand when I was going to put him in the cage. That is the first and only time he has intentionally grabbed anyone in the 3 years that we have had him. He is so great though and never ceases to make me laugh! I will have to post a video of him talking.

Well readers there is a lot more going on in our lives but this is becoming a novel and I'm sure you are all bored ;) I hope that blessings pour into your lifes and I will be checking up on your blogs almost daily!

MUCH LOVE!

Forgot to post about this!

A couple of weeks ago Jared went to Seattle for an extented weekend vacation over Memorial weekend. He felt like he needed some recuperation time from the military, doctor appointments, and life in general. This was the first vacation that he has had from work since December of 2007. I was happy that he got that time but I was also very upset because I wasn't invited to go. So I was abandoned for the weekend but he made up for it. He is the most amazing ever. He brought me back some beautiful beveled glass with real flowers pressed in the center. He got them at a street fair in seattle and the lady makes them herself. I love him. Here they are...

Celebrating 3 years of Marriage

Hollywood Sign

The Beginning of the Walk of Fame

The Chinese Theatre

Hollywood and Highlands Shopping Center

The Odditorium

The Button Man

This man was insane! even though he was playing with it up his nose he sounded amazing! The Crap you find on Hollywood Boulevard!

The Pirate Dinner Adventure Venue

This is when the big boom kicked off the show!

Jared and I.

Our Pirate Cake

MMMMMMM Look at that six pack!

Our Cute Cake

Our Pirate and Gypsy girl

The Beautiful flowers that Jared brought me on Tuesday. It was cute because we went to get groceries and then I got home before him and I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then a knock came at the door and when I anwered there he was holding this and a super sweet card. He is the best!

Blogger Lameness...Yup that's me!

I have been truely aweful at being on top of my blog lately. Things at the office and outside of work have been very busy for us lately. For the past week or so we have been preparing for our June 2009 Distributor conference for work. Every single one of us has been running all over the place with at least a hundred things to do/re-do before the conference kicked off. I have left work every single night completely exhausted and have had to force myself to go to the gym becuase I have no energy. I have been completely aweful at going to the gym lately as well. I haven't gone at all this week and I feel like a cow but I just haven't had time and I think Jared got me sick.

But lets back up....because of the conference Jared and I had to celebrate our anniversary early. So on Saturday we woke up and did a little bit of research and then loaded up into the car and drove to Hollywood. I just love going to Hollywood...it's so exciting and because I am such a theatre/music buff it makes it that much more of a great scene for me. The history of some of those building is just phenominal. The greats walked there. I wish I were famous lol. We parked at our normal spot at the hollywood and highlands shopping center. It's cool because it's right next to the Kodak theatre and has a perfect view of the Hollywood sign. you just walk out of the amazing indoor outdoor shopping and down the steps onto hollywood blvd. We walked over and went to Ripley's believe it or not odditorium. That was so fun! those exhibts are insane. Mr. Ripley went to some crazy places in the course of his life. We were going to go to the wax museum but we ran out of time because we had dinner plans at 8:30 in Buena Park. We left just in time to arrive at the Pirate Dinner Adventure as soon as they opened at 7. Good thing to because everyone had the same idea we did and the line was already getting long. They had a preshow and free appetizers while we waited. Jared and I grabbed some drinks and settled down for the preshow. They did some fun silly entertainment with the audience and they had a "gypsy" girl that did the most amazing acrobatics. we were completely focused on her walking from the ceiling and the lights were dimmed. Then BOOM! An explosion happened and whiskey barrels were falling from ceiling and pirates were sliding down right in front of us. It was so exciting! When we came in the door we got a ticket with a color on it and that determined our section and the pirate that we followed. Ours was green and we got to sit in the second row. The show was just great. very entertaining! Plus I loved the fact that every single one of those men had a perfect 6 pack. It's not very often that women get good eye candy like that lol. They mentioned to everyone that it was our anniversary and they even gave us a cake *the secret is we paid for it lol* If you ever come to California or go to Florida then you should check it out. I have pictures of it that I will post later. I had to work on Tuesday *our real anniversary date* so we just went to the grocery store and Jared made me Ribeye steak and I made real mashed potatoes. It was such a nice dinner. When Jared came home he brought me the most beautiful flowers, there were a dozen roses, calalillys, carnations, and a few others that I don't know the name of. I just can't believe that we have been married for 3 years already. It's amazing!

Dismissed for lack of prosecution...

Yup readers...the title says it all! Court went very well, Here is the story.

I left work around noon so that I would have plenty of time to get there and wait until called into trial. I was freaking out pretty bad so I pulled out my awesome iphone and played a little bit of bewjeweled to calm my nerves...and by george it was working.....Until.....The unhappy indian man sitting next to me felt that he had to talk and complain about how bad and stupid our country was. I was so annoyed and gave him pretty much every sign I could in a polite way for him to see that I wasn't interested in chatting. At last..the doors flew open and the baliff walked out to call us in. Yes! Wait NO! the nerves came back and we were marched into the large room with at least 20 police man on the right side of the room. We sat down and paper work was passed around. The small but boisterous baliff continued to tell us what to do and what was about to happen to us all. The clerk entered and started to call roll call. She would call our names and the cop that pulled us over. If the police man didn't answer then we were to stand up and move to the first two rows of the court room. I was the last one to be called, out of around 30 people. I loudly said "Present" and waited for the call of the cop. Nothing. WAHOO! I stood up and moved to the front of the room but still remained stressed and nervous. We were told to stand up to be sworn into court and had to tell the reason for our ticket. Then the judge entered. We all were seated and she started to read names from a small stack of papers...it was "us" the small group fortunate ones whom did not have a cop present. she read off everyone but me, my heart began to race and that small panic was creeping back. The clerk had my paper still and had forgotten to give it to the judge. The judge looked at my paper and read my name..then said "Charges dismissed for lack of prosecution!"

I breathed a sigh of relief and had to sit anxiously while the others stood pleading their case. It was so scary...I hate being in trouble for anything! After what felt like forever the bailiff handed me my paper and said you are free to go. I took my paper and walked out of that court room proud!

Thank you Mellisa for calling the cop and telling him not to come ;) Your the bestest friend ever!

Court...Again...

I have my trial today at 1:00 and I am freaking out! I didn't do anything wrong but I know that they are all going to look at me and treat me like I need to go to jail right then and there. I am so stressed it's retarded. But $440 is a lot of money that I don't have. Wish me luck readers...I need it!

The Dreaded Blue Jeans.....

Blue jeans...something that hasn't wrapped my body in over a year. It felt like jeans became untouchable as most clothes did when I gained so much weight, but after months of trying to put on jeans and let down after let down going from size bigger and bigger, I found some! As you all know I have started my road to a healthy life in March when I joined Fuse fitness and I have been going every single day since then. I am trying to watch what I eat a little more and every morning for breakfast I substitute that with a slimfast as I am running to work. So far I have lost 10 pounds and several inches in some parts but i'm not sure on the exact count because I didn't measure like I should have when I started. I am very excited to be able to squeeze into jeans again..especially L.E.I ones. and I hope to continue to get smaller and smaller. Wish me luck reader! Love all of you!