Brandon & Cristina: 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

my dad...

[DISCLAIMER: this post is mostly for me. just so that I can have a record of what happened before I forget all the details. it may be choppy and only make sense to me...but I’ll get it]
Monday Sept 28, 2009 it was about 4:30 and I was at work. I received a phone call from my aunt and she told me that my dad was about to have heart surgery and that they found aneurysms in his abdomen! my boss told me to leave and not to come back tomorrow. so I went home and met my sister and we drove to Daly city with just that info. on the way out there we picked up my nephew Jacob on the way. we got to seton hospital and met my auntie Terri, auntie minang, uncle Reggie, auntie Marilyn, brother Jon and nephew Julian who were in the small family waiting room. my auntie Terri had recapped to us what happened. you know how when the mailman comes to drop off a package and no one is home; they leave one of those slips that say that you have to go to the post office to pick it up? well my dad got off of work at like 1 and went to the post office to pick up the package. and all I was told at this point is that he was rushed to the hospital from there. as the night went on more and more people arrived, the rollmans[randy, Margie, baron and brage], uncle bobby and auntie julie, auntie chong, uncle freddie and tess, uncle victor, auntie beth and anna, greg, marie, frederick, jasmina and my brother david showed up from carmel too. the surgeon came out and spoke to the 4 of us kids and told us that they did a quadruple heart bypass and that we could go in to see him in about an hour but he would still be asleep. also while they had him in the emergency room he flat lined and they had to paddle him back to life. it was only one time though. the hour passed but it seemed like it was FOREVER!!!! they let us in 2 at a time. so nena and jon went 1st and they came out sooner than I would have thought. next david and I went in and I almost fell apart. I have never seen my dad like that. no one should ever have to see their parents like that. tubes everywhere, machines with tubes in him helping him breathe blood everywhere...it was sad. the nurse bella came in and we talked to her. she agreed to call me the second he woke up since he probably wouldn't wake up till 6am the next morning. by this time it was maybe 1030? the nurse was asking us a bunch of info and it REALLY upset me for some reason. the fact that she was asking me if he was a donor, who was in charge of his estate, who is supposed to make the calls, what he wants if he passes...I didn't like it at all! as far as I knew he was laying there from his operation and recovering! and here she was asking me death questions. I understand why she did it; it just didn't sit well with me and the time. my aunts and uncles went in and they saw him...they had all seen him in this condition before when he had his leg accident about 30 years ago. finally it was about 1120 and there was nothing else we could do so we left. oh! once they let me and david in, I searched through my dad’s belongings to find the slip the post office had left to see which post office his truck was at since there are many post offices in Daly city. so my brothers went to get his truck at the only post office they didn’t think to go look at and they brought his Yukon home. everyone left and my sister and I were the last ones to leave. I was on the san Mateo bridge driving home about 11:40 when I got a call from my brother saying that he went back to get his own car that was at the hospital still and he went in to check on my dad one last time before he left. and he said when he walked in the room, my dads hand was moving and he had woken up. the 1st thing my dad did was miming driving. david said, its ok I have your truck. my dad then reached for where his wallet would have been on his body, and david said, its ok, cristina has your stuff, the nurse signed it all out to her. the nurse came in and sedated him since he wasn’t supposed to have woken up till 6 the next morning. I was gonna turn around once I reached jackson, but he told me don’t bother cuz visiting hours were over and he would just be asleep anyway. my brother and I decided that we needed that. we needed to know that our dad was ok. by david being able to see my dad awake for even just a few minutes, it gave us peace of mind knowing he'd be ok.
we were told that the next morning before any of us arrived to the hospital my dad awoke and the 1st thing he said was he asked the nurse if he had any visitors while he was out. she sorta chuckled at him and said, only your whole family. my brothers arrived and surprisingly enough he remembered everything! except for the whole flat line thing of course. when I arrived he told me everything.
he said...when he was driving to the post office he was getting dizzy and sleepy. so when he parked he sat in the truck for a few minutes. when he felt better, he started walking into the post office but his prosthesis wouldn’t move so he sorta hopped up the steps. when he got into the post office he leaned against the wall and sat on the floor where he then threw up and asked someone to call 911 since his chest was hurting. a man called 911 and the ambulance took him a few blocks up to seton which is a cardiac specialty hospital. he was taken to the ER and was totally coherent talking to the dr there. he was telling him about the package and his family then all of a sudden he flat lines. they paddled him and took him to the operating room. also that morning before any of us had arrived a doctor walked in and said, good morning Mr. baron how are you feeling? and my dad recognized his voice but didn’t know why. apparently the doctor/specialist that did the graft on his leg [to take the vain outta his leg for his heart] was the same guy who was in the post office who called 911. he was on his lunch break and was picking something up from the post office. someone was totally looking out for my dad.
that's mostly the chaotic part... he's recovering well. when I was in there the nurse was unwrapping his leg to check on the swelling or bruising since normally when they take a vein outta your leg there is a lot of bruising. turns out my dad doesn’t bruise. he heals really well.
they moved him wednesday night about 10 pm to the 6th floor which is the heart floor and about 4:00pm thursday they moved him to kaiser.
i asked the surgeon about the aneurysms and he told me that his concern at the moment was his heart. but they will be monitoring this abdomen once he recovers. turns out my grandpa, my dads dad died of a heart attack and aneurysms! scary!!!!

if you actually read this...way to go you!!! thanks for muscling through it.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

it's been a while...

ok....so summer is over, but it feels like summer doesn't really exist anymore once you're outta high school. being a grown up kicks in...but we did do some really fun stuff. let me show you...
i learned how to color splash:

oh! and i got a wicked sunburn....1st one of my life!! it was a really fun 4th of july too!

me and lou...

david showing us all why he's a marine

my loves before the fireworks...

boyfriends!

rosalynn got scarred!!

all of us...

my nerds!!

july 11th we went to the alameda county fair with alicia and casey:
where i rode the bull...

it rained for like 30 seconds...hence the wet pavement...

check out my wicked park job. i pulled that far forward so that we could find it easily on our way out...smart huh?

the lovebirds...

the scariest ride of our lives...

all he needs in this life of sin is...

we had a really fun time at the fair...this is us leaving...we were always in strange seating all day...i drove there and brandon was in shot gun...i was too tired to drive back:

july 22nd my in-laws got tickets to EARTH WIND&&FIRE with CHICAGO and brought us with them...

it was such a good show!!!

both bands playing together!!!

august 1st brandon's uncle from utah came since it was rickey henderson's memorial thing.

and lastly...to end the summer...my best friend bobby turned 24. so we had a sweet tailgate party at guess where? the coliseum. you know...with as much time as i spend at that god forsaken place...i think they're trying to turn me into an a's fan. :( NEVER!!!! it was a firework show...so here we are after the show in the field

and lastly...brandon and josh learned a camp song from raquel...
here's raquel's:

and here are brandon and josh:

i can't complain...we had a really fun summer!!! we did a lot of things and with the people that we love!!!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

calling all moms!!!!

You can buy a Nursing Cover for just the shipping cost. Go to uddercovers.com and use the promo code: cute2.

https://www.uddercovers.com/index.php

Monday, March 30, 2009

thinking...

i've been thinking a lot lately about something my sister said to me. Last sunday was our 1 year wedding anniversary and my sister texted me asking what the hardest part was, since you know..."the 1st year is the hardest" right? or so they say. i replied, "nothing really" and here's what she said, "BRANDON NOT HAVING A JOB FOR THE FIRST 4 MONTHS? PAYING RENT? BUDGETING BETTER? SPLITTING UP BILLS? CHANGING JOBS? TAKING A PAY CUT WHEN YOU DID TAKE YOUR NEW JOB JUST TO HAVE MORE TIME? COOKING? LIVING WITH A BOY? IN LAW ISSUES?"
my first thought to this was...wow...that really is a lot to take. but i [we] don't see it like that. sure it was hard trying to figure out how everything was going to get paid for...but we did it. we never lacked what we needed. we never [REALLY] wanted something we couldn't have. we have been blessed with so much. it makes me really stand back and think...we're so fortunate. and the list that my sister made...that's not even half of it. we've managed to be married and not "lose ourselves". we are one, we are a team...but we've never given anything up that we really love. i LOVE to hang with my peeps [cheesy i know, but HELLO....MADE IN THE 80's] and brandon loves to chill with his sibs and watch a movie. also...in about February...we fond ourselves opening our home to our very best friend. we feel so blessed that he feels like he can come to us in one of his hardest times.
THE LORD has really been looking out for us this past year and we are so thankful for that.

ok...so moving right along...we took anniversary pics...look:

Sunday, March 22, 2009

year one....down...infinity more to go.

time sure does fly!!! it's already been 365 days since we were married! like 4-5 years ago, i told brandon i'd take him to the mystery spot since i loved it so much...so we finally went for our 1 year anniversary.
here is a SUPER long....ok maybe like 45 pics or so. enjoy:

Monday, March 2, 2009

Welcome to March

This weekend is the first in a VERY long time that actually seemed like it was long enough! Friday David, Brandon and i had dinner and hung out all night. Saturday, i had a primary activity from 10-12 then brandon had an Elders Quorum activity that he and his counselors put on from 12 to whenever. That too was a lot of fun, we were fortunate enough to have a GREAT BBQ at Mt. Eden park with nice weather. it was a good turn out and i even learned to play Frisbee...well...i sorta know how to throw one now. we played a bunch of games, it was fun. After that we picked up brandon's brother and sister [josh and lou]. we got back to the house and played WORLD TOUR and watched tropic thunder. Later that night, my in-laws came to pick up the kids [or so we call them the kids...they're actually 16 and 17], and we put my father in law on the drum set. check him out:

He actually was a lot better than we thought he'd be. He says he played drums in jazz band for summer school one year. but anyone who knows "fetch" as we like to call him knows he's a super goofy guy!!!

Sunday...we had church...Gina Cook came over after for lunch and the boys did...actually, i don't know what they did...i took a nap. a few hours later we went to grandma's [brandon's grandma] for dinner. came home...and we [we being david, brandon, joshy and i] watch a movie that will not be named since i don't know which adult/parental figures will be reading this.

IT WAS A REALLY GOOD WEEKEND!!!!!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

hair...

ok...here are some pics of when i chopped it off and donated it in 2005 and most recently in 2009:

ok..i know this time wasn't as drastic...but it's still a lot to me.

my brother in law josh said, "For a normal person that's not a lot, but for you this is huge!"
thanks joshy.

What do ya think?

valentine's

ok, so my childhood bff got after me about not blogging! i told her that if i had a cute 5 year old, i'd be bloggin everyday too!!! so here i am, thanks aub!

ok...so...where did i leave off?? .:::this is me thinking:::. ah yes...with my birthday pictures.

Luckily for you all, i have valentine's and HAIRCUT picys!!!

As of late...like a few months back my god pal alicia and i started having friday dinners as a practice for our one day "friends" dinner. [you know how on the show friends the 6 of them get together for the holidays? well, i've always wanted to do that. i just haven't figured out how to do it with no ones parents/family getting upset. and most importantly...with all of the good food that those people have to offer. enough of this tangent.] so we decided to have a PRE-VALENTINE'S day dinner...look. i made a fancy lookin salad in a heart bowl. well...at the bottom of the bowl there is a heart:

i also made my very 1st homemade lasagna! i am a Stouffer's FREAK!!!

there was also garlic bread and so on and so forth. the next day was the 14th and this is what i found when i woke up:

the card says, Cristina my love. aww....what a nice guy. and anyone who knows me knows that i do not eat chocolate and that i am allergic to flowers. this leaves brandon to come up with other original ideas. [jewelry seems to do the trick, but it has to be real fine metals...anything else makes me bleed.] I LOVE SWEDISH FISH!!!!
ok ok ok. here are some more mushy gushy 1st