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1) the virgin snow on our front lawn 2) Gloria's renal artery: before & after - quite dramatic! 3) Oliva expressing joy The phone rang very early. It was a co-worker of Mindy’s calling to report another day without school. All the effort Mindy put into preparing a lesson plan for a substitute teacher the night before was all for not. I was certain, however, that she didn’t mind. My day would proceed as usual so I got up and going with my day. It was just after 6am. Once again, the early AM temperatures were below zero with a significant wind chill. The prior evening’s snow was very pretty under the crystal clear sky and very bright moon light. After a quick set of exercises, Ykraps and I set out on our journey through the snow. The snow glistened like never before under the chilly moon light. I think that was due in part to the extra fluffy snow. Most of the snow we get is the wet heavy stuff and rarely if ever does it snow when the temps are in the single digits as yesterday. Regardless, it looked spectacular. Upon our return, I let Ykraps in the house but headed back out to shovel the additional inch or so off the drive and walks. Again, I can’t afford to be lazy with my steep drive. I was definitely ready for some coffee when I got back inside. Mindy had mentioned waking at 7am but just before I headed downstairs she advised that she was going to phone Ashley to request a much later arrival time. I took that as she no longer wanted up at 7am. I went about my morning in peace. Mindy got up just before I headed to the shower. She left Ash a VM requesting the time change. I took a handful of pictures of the beautiful sunrise & fluffy snowfall. We had about 3-4 inches total. I readied and left for work as usual. Work was busy and the day went fast. We had our standing Wednesday staff meeting that lasted only half an hour. But I had plenty else to keep me hopping. When I got back from my meeting I saw that Mindy had called a couple of times. She reported Ashley being 50 minutes late arriving. She was stressed over it. Gloria’s procedure was to take place near noon and Mindy certainly wanted to be there. She called again later, just after she arrived. As it turns out, the procedure was done before she got there. She wasn’t too happy. Regardless, the most important thing was that it went well. They placed the stent in the renal artery. She was already in recovery with only minor complications associated with taking an uncoated aspirin after the fact. That made her vomit, and in turn, they gave her some Phenergan, an antihistamine commonly used to control itching from allergies and or nausea and vomiting. But from the sounds of it, she experienced many of the documented side effects from taking it, too. It made her loopy, angry, and fidgety. To counter that, they gave her some Dilaudid, a very powerful pain killer, and favorite amongst the junkie community. After that, as I understand it, she was pretty much out of it for a while. She was given only a half dose. It sounded like she’d be going home tomorrow provided her blood count was in check and her blood pressure regulated. Mindy left the hospital around 3:45pm destined for our appointment. I, in turn, left work around 4:05pm. She arrived just before me. I arrived at 4:30pm sharp. We talked for almost an hour. It was a good, productive meeting. We followed one another home, and arrived just after 5:45pm. Ashley and the kids seemed to be having a good time. Jacob had been out playing in the snow. We decided to make a Bob Evans family sized turkey dinner via the micorwave. As a side, Mindy whipped up Stove-Top stuffing. Hey, it's TG dinner! Everybody enjoyed it. After dinner we played with Olivia and took a few pictures. She makes the funniest facial expressions, unlike any I've ever seen a baby make. While trying to make her giggle, I made her cry, instead. Apparently I had scared her. I felt bad and cuddled her fears away. After my time with her, Mindy took a turn. She enjoys her as much as me. She helped Mindy ready the kids for bed. I heard Mindy laughing her ass off up stairs. She soon called for me to bring the camera to capture a special moment. Olivia was bouncing on Jacob's bed and was once again making one of those priceless faces. We all got a big belly laugh! Ashley left as the kids were going to bed. After she left Mindy read my blog while I did some reading. I finally finished my latest Deepak book, Life After Death. American Idol came on at 9pm. We watched. It was as entertaining as always. We headed to bed almost immediately following Idol. We exchanged back crackings just before heading up. Oh yeah, as far as we could tell, Mindy would be returning to school on Thursday.