Category Archives: Misc

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My new body

May 28, 2008 – 12:02 pm

Just before Christmas I took up a new hobby. Inspired by a really great deal at a local health club, winter blues, and a chance encounter with a personal trainer, I began weightlifting. Many of you know that I am a marathon runner. Marathoning is fabulously fun but quite time consuming and injury laden. Frustrated by a sore hip and realizing that 2 little kids and 18 mile training runs don’t mix well, I thought that a little weightlifting might just do the trick. I feel fabulous! The baby weight was easier to lose with weightlifting than with marathoning. And I have abs!!!

Three times a week I visit Ultimate Fitness for my workouts.

Once a month I meet with Matt Owen, a personal trainer. He’s great! I couldn’t have done this without him.  My experience that meeting with a personal trainer is SOOO worth it. I’d have lasted about 1 month without his direction. He’s super encouraging and totally not scary at all. Plus, I get to feel like Oprah when I say things like, “My personal trainer told me that…”

Some of the benefits:

  • I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight.
  • My hip doesn’t hurt anymore.
  • I feel REALLY GREAT!
  • I’ll say it again. I have abs!!!
  • I’ve met new friends.
  • I’m so much stronger. Which is great going into the wedding season. A full day of shooting is VERY strenuous.

So, what do you think of my new body? Is it too much? ;-)

Ha! That’s pretty…um…impressive.

I felt like I needed to put a picture of myself up on this post. But it’s a little difficult to take a picture of myself. And it’s a little embarrassing to put a picture of myself on the Internet in a post that is about my body. You’ll have to wait.

By Rachel Henderson | Comments (3)

New Neighbors

April 22, 2008 – 12:52 pm

We have new neighbors.  I think that their decorating style could be categorized as colorful.  It’s not a style that I exactly “get” but I like the boldness.

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By Rachel Henderson | Comments (5)

We officially live in the future

April 9, 2008 – 5:30 am

Today Win, Harriet and I were at the store when I had my first sighting of a SmartCar.  Um…wow!  They are small.  They look a little like a P.T. Cruiser that’s been chopped in two.  Here’s a picture of the one that we saw.  Win and I went over to it to get a closer look.  In it we saw the perfect accessory–a 7 pound Yorkie standing guard.

 

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By Rachel Henderson | Comments (3)

More Details

March 21, 2008 – 4:04 pm

A huge thank you to everyone who helped us through Jared’s surgery. This has been quite the week. I’m never sure what day it is; it all feels like one big day. Many have asked, “what happened?” Here’s the blow by blow.

On Monday morning Jared woke up with a horrible neck-ache and stomach sickness. Meanwhile Winfield started vomiting. He vomited six times on Monday. Then Jared vomited.

After 2 trips to a chiropractor and severely escalating pain we went into the ER at 10:30pm on Monday night. The ER doctor gave Jared dolodid (the drug that they give when morphine isn’t enough) and 2 other narcotics. They and sent him home but the drugs barely took the edge off the pain.

By 1:30 that night Jared was delirious with pain. His left arm was cold and he had no strength in it. We went back to the ER.

The ER doctor, thinking Jared was a druggie or something, refused to give him any more help. He told us to take a motrin and go home. He told us that it was muscle spasms and if the pain didn’t subside in a week Jared could get an MRI. I was a little upset at the thought of waiting a week for further care. I honestly don’t think Jared could have been in more pain if his arm had been cut off.

At 4:30am I called Jared’s dad, an orthopedic surgeon, and asked him for his advice about what to do. Within 5 minutes of describing Jared’s symptoms his Dad gave a diagnosis of a severe C6/C7 herniated disc that would most likely need surgery. After we passed that thought on to the ER doc, Jared’s care really improved. He got more drugs and an MRI at 6:00am. The MRI indicated that Jared’s dad’s over the phone diagnosis was exactly right.

Jared spent all Tuesday in the hospital, flat on his back, and decently drugged up. He was able to get into surgery at noon on Wednesday with Dr. Lowry, who is a fabulous neurosurgeon. The surgery went well. The damage was a little worse than the MRI had indcated.

Thursday morning Jared was able to keep down his first real meal. He came home and has been a little tired and still feeling sick. Winfield is still sick and vomiting. I’m now nauseous and have a headache. Harriet seems to have some sort of head cold. Basically, nobody’s healthy around here.

Jared’s left arm is still really numb and tingly. He also doesn’t have any strength in his tricep. There was so much pressure on the nerves that they are either irritated and swollen or damaged. He’ll regain his strength in those muscles but it could take up to 1 1/2 years, depending on the extent of the damage.

Thankfully, a lot of laundry, surgery, some decent medical bills and a minor scar are about the worst of it. We have friends and neighbors bringing us food, and we’ll all be feeling better soon, no doubt. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and phone calls.

By Rachel Henderson | Comments (1)

A bit of news

March 18, 2008 – 7:48 pm

Hey everyone.  Yesterday morning I woke up with a wicked neckache and a ton of pain shooting down my left arm.  The pain increased throughout the day until I caved at about 10:30pm and Rachel took me to the ER.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is, I’m in the hospital right now and am scheduled for surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12noon.  The  surgery is to correct a severely ruptured disc in my neck.  The procedure  they’re going to do is called a “cervical C6/7 transcorporal discectomy.”  Sounds cool, eh?

 I’m feeling a lot better today, thanks to not moving at all for about 24 hours and a decent amount of narcotics.  I’d appreciate any prayers you’d throw my way.  My nuerosurgeon is named Dr. David Lowry, and he seems like a good guy. Rachel and I are doing fine, not too worried or anything.  Thanks! 

By Jared Henderson | Comments (11)

I filled up for $3.39 a gallon…but gas is still cheap to me.

March 14, 2008 – 1:09 pm

Have you ever gotten together with friends and laughed about the days when gas was under a dollar. I was in high school then. It was the winter of 1996 when I got my driver’s license. To enable us to remain kids and not have the burden or auto ownership my parents, thankfully, provided my brother, sister and me with a car to share. We called it the “kid car.” More correctly I should say them. The “kid car” was actually a string of very old vehicles that spent the final months of their lives in our family. The parade went something like this.

1981 Caprice Classic Wagon

1972 Saab

This one was our favorite. The ignition had broken so my dad rigged the car to start by pressing a button. C’mon that’s cool!

1985 Honda Accord

BORING!

1976 Nova

Probably the most amazing of the bunch. This vehicle had no working speedometer. I would just guess at my speed. About 5% of the times that I made a left hand turn the passenger door would come unlatched and go flying open. The passenger door on a 1976 2-door Nova is no small object. Passengers were always required to buckle up.

1979 Toronado

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This car was the one that I drove the most. I was pretty spectacular. When I went to college some random strangers stopped my our house and offered to buy it. It sold for less that I had paid for my roller blades.

The “Toro” was ’70s-gold and decked out. It had powerseats, leather, a little voice that told you when your 2-ton door was ajar, and to top it off, a V8 engine. Other features included rhythmic forceful shaking when stopped at a stoplight, a cloud of blue smoke as a declaration of superiority for whomever was behind me, and an amazing 6 miles per gallon. Here’s an image that I found online of the same year and color. If the phrase “pimp daddy” comes to mind then you’ve got the picture.

1981 Cadillac (DeVille I think)

123 inch wheel base. ‘nuf said.

When I married Jared in 1999 he had a 1995 Dodge Stratus. When I got married, in college, I didn’t even own a car. The Straus is still with us as our main vehicle. Yup, I still drive the first car that I ever owned. 2 years into our marriage we decided that a second vehicle was in order. Sticking with my family tradition of old second vehicles Jared and I purchased a 1986 Mazda pickup with awesome racing striped. This car looks like it should be wearing tight stonewash jeans, a hypercolor t-shirt while smoking a cigarette.

Back to gas prices. Our Stratus gets about 23 miles per gallon. At $3.49 a gallon driving is still cheaper than it was for me in 1996 when I paid just less than a dollar to drive 6 miles in that 1979 V8 Toronado.

Jed, Johanna, are my facts right?

By Rachel Henderson | Also posted in Dean Family | Comments (4)