(busy-ness) x (1,000,000) = me

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Read the update now: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/marykommeth/updates/2194805?client_code=default&ipc=mur)

My Mom was in a car accicent...

This is an update from my Dad. I'm making plans to go home.

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June 11 news with a June 12 update.

June 11, 2009, Thursday afternoon, my wife, Mary, was returning home after a morning spent at a summer camp in Newton Co. for handicapped kids - she was assisting with art projects with these children and recording some of the activities in photographs.

She drove her car off the road, Brown Bridge Road, not far from home. I don't yet know exactly what caused her to do this.
She is currently in an Intensive Care Unit at Atlanta Medical Center which is one of the 2 large trauma centers for the Atlanta region.

She is not conscious, having head trauma, intracranial bleeding and she is intubated, breathing on her own but being assisted w/a ventilator.

Neurosurgery has put a pressure monitor in her skull to be able to monitor any swelling of the brain which if not quickly treated can cause severe complications.

In the ICU where she is, their goal is to minimize stimulation for her since any stimulation causes the pressure on the brain to increase naturally.

Mary has a fracture in the occipital bone in the back of the skull, a fractured clavicle (collarbone) on the right side, multiple fractured ribs, a punctured lung, cut spleen and a fractured patella (kneecap) on the right knee. Also scrapes and bruises.

I know this doesn't sound real but it is.

At this point, the best that the Doctors can tell me is that we will take it one day at a time. The 1st 48 hours are the critical ones for a head trauma patient.
She has good/steady vital signs including blood pressure. She is able to move both arms and legs on her own.

I believe that no matter what happens, God is in control & I'll accept what His will is for me and my wife.

I ask that you pray for God’s healing touch for Mary.

I’ll update again when I can & I hope to be able to use CarePages (www.CarePages.com) as a way to provide updates that will be easy for all to access.
I have made contact with Maria/Rocky and Susan/David so the girls know about their Mom.

Update on June 12.

At the end of the day it is hard for me to realize that this only represents a little more than 24 hours since Mary had her accident.
How quickly life can change.
Since the first 48 hours are critical for a head trauma patient I have to be patient and continue to trust and pray.

Mary is still unconscious.
This "coma" is the result of the trauma, not the result of any medication.
She has been able to move her arms and legs by herself - it reminds me of how one shifts position while sleeping. I did see a grimace on her face when the nurse changed the cervical collar around her neck. These are good signs. The intracranial pressure has been good. Her vital signs including blood pressure continue to be stable. She was administered 3 units of whole blood and has begun enteral feeding - liquid nutrition through a tube.

Mary was taken for another CT scan. I don't know the results because I didn't speak with any doctor on Friday. I understand from the nurses that it will be routine for Mary to have CT scans - probably on a daily basis - so that the condition of her brain can be frequently evaluated.

So, even though I'm reporting all of these things, it really come down to the fact that not a lot has changed for Mary after 24 hours.

I want to sincerely thank all of those who have called/emailed wishing their best thoughts and offering of prayers. To those who have visited at the hospital I also offer my gratitude for your love and friendship.

The offerings of support and "if there is anything your need please let me know..." have been wonderful. These are true expressions of kindness compassion and support. I wish I could take each of you up on those offers...that there really was something physical or material that I could ask you to do for me or for Mary. That would be easy for me and you.
But in a situation like this there really isn't that much that I need your help with right now (please believe me - I WILL ask for help whenever I think of a need.)
There really isn't anything you can do for Mary right now.

The harder thing for me to ask you for is your prayers. We use the words so easily - I'm guilty of this - but we minimize the time for actually doing this. So my harder request is for you to really think about those words, what they mean and then to find the time to make them true in your life.
Right now, and as we slowly travel the long difficult road that lies ahead, that is how all of you can help Mary and me the most.
Sincerely,
John Kommeth

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Spa-ahhhh

It decided to rain this weekend so David and I decided to show Rocky and Maria what we did to celebrate our anniversary last year... and it was a great success.

David and I went to a place called Thermopolis (in a nearby city, Amneville), but we took them to a place called Villa Pompei that is just up the street from Thermopolis. This is what the outside looks like.

We didn't bring our cameras, so we don't have any pictures of the inside, but don't worry, we plan to go back! Villa Pompei is twice as expensive as Thermopolis, but we have decided that when we go back we'll go to Thermopolis insead. It was actually bigger (with more pools/hot tubs, and jets, and even a "waterfall"). So, we aren't really sure why there is such a big price difference...but it was greeeat.

After that, we came home and made some Cincinnati Chili for lunch and went outside to find the flamenco dancers that were supposed to be at Place St. Louis. They weren't there. We think that's because of the rain earlier in the day...it was canceled. Then we walked around to see if we could find anything else going on (since this is supposed to be some kind of "music weekend"). Instead, we ended up at the Museum of Metz.

Every first Sunday of the month (until September, so they said) the museum is free. So we went! We've been before but never through the entire thing. It's pretty enormous. We found a nice picture of Metz from the 17th century. For those of you who have visited us, can you find where we live? Most of the pedestrian streets of the city are still the same...and of course the cathedral is in the same place (hint! good reference point).

We also liked this painting of Metz. Notice the clouds...not much has changed, huh?

It's neat to see how the city has grown and changed, but also what has stayed the same. The majority of the stuff in the museum was from Metz throughout the years...found, or painted, etc, but they did have some things borrowed from other museums temporarily. It's like a Louvre for Metz. Seriously, it's big.

That was our weekend!

Stay tuned! In the near future you'll be seeing things about Italy... Austria (hopefully!)... and more spa-ing!

busy-ness

We've had visitors...

(Jay & Amy)

We've made some awesome food...

(Mongolian Beef)

I've practiced my dessert skills...

(chocolate cup cakes with almond icing - and flowers!)

I'm SO close to finishing the stitching on my Christmas stocking...

(this means I get to start David's soon!)

I've given tours of Metz...traveled to Nancy for the billionth time...and done a bunch of errands for my terribly forgetful sister...

And we have our tickets home! We leave France early August to travel to Ireland with my family, then on August 13th we leave Ireland, stop by Rochester (to visit more of my family) and then we arrive in Georgia on the 16th! Fun fun!

Bourgogne

Welcome to the premier of the very first production of Swafford.Dunlap Films!

The second weekend in May we took our first weekend vacation with Rocky and Maria since their arrival. We went to the Burgundy (Bourgogne) region of France, known for it's wine, and saw MANY vineyards, chateaux, and French countrysides.

We hope to continue the trend of making videos of our adventures. I'll try to keep them a decent length. This one is on the long side...a little over 9 minutes. Enjoy!

...and this little doggie goes "arf! arf! arf!" all the way home...

At 3am we load the car to bring Duncan to Frankfurt.

At 6am he will be in the hands of PetAir headed to Atlanta.

Super Dog!

Our little world traveler is off again! ...even though he hasn't realized it yet.

Duncan has a flight out of Frankfurt on Friday. (Well, it was Friday bu tnow the date is changing...maybe Monday or Tuesday, thanks to customs in Atlanta) We are supposed to get him there by 6am - yikes! And then he will arrive in Atlanta around 1:55pm local time. And, Metz has decided to give him a traditional Metz going-away present...rain! How nice.

arrivals and departures

It's not everyday that members of your family move abroad to live in the same city as you. We have been lucky enough to have this experience.

After a fun adventure at the airport and quick TGV ride...
...the Dunlaps are here!They are predictably jet lagged but hopefully we'll keep them busy enough to get over it fast.

In other news, it is official that we will be returning to Georgia mid-August. David needs to return to the Atlanta campus to use their lab again, but this time we will stay. This doesn't mean that David has finished his PhD or anything, cause he hasn't. But, returning to Atlanta might speed along this process because he'll have access to a wider variety of classes and people experienced in what he's working on.

This also means I get to try to find a job. Good timing huh? It's probably the worst time to be looking for work... I'm ready for a real job though.

Duncan will be returning to Georgia Friday, May 15th before the weather gets really warm :o( It will be sad to see him go, but he'll enjoy the Georgia summer sun and ability to have free roam of his invisible fenced in yard again. I know he misses it.

So, we'll be busy this summer! Traveling with Rocky and Maria, our other visiting family, packing, and moving our lives back the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Maheen.

Katherine,
This is mostly for you.

She cracks me up.

Locked Out!

We took Duncan out for a walk this morning in the beautiful sunshine. Then when we returned to our apartment we saw one of our neighbors struggling to get in the door. It as just her key that didn't work. It looked like someone had broken off the end of their key in the door! Turns out the lock was actually broken. It has been getting more and more difficult to turn the key in the door, but now it's fixed! We had to seek refuge at Fred's place for a little while while borrowing his locksmith locating talents. ...Duncan enjoyed it...he's pet sitting a rat... We were a little worried at first that no one was going to come out to help us since it's a Sunday, but it all worked out.

Then we had lunch with Kathy and Peter. Vietnamese spring rolls, fried rice, and French pastries.

Scuba diving level 2 theory test is this week...time to study!

"We are in Sain!"

The title of this blog is in tribute to a typo I made recently. Though a typo, it may not be too far from the truth sometimes! It was supposed to read : "We are in Spain!" ...because we were!

We spent 5 days and 4 nights in Barcelona. We had a hotel along La Rambla, the biggest pedestrian street. It was filled with street performers, mimes, tourist shops, street vendors, and supposedly pick-pockets, but we didn't see any, thankfully!

The first day was full of sunshine and lots of walking to get our barrings for the rest of the trip. I got a sunburn! It was a nice change! Then, for the rest of the time we tried to plan out our days to maximize what we could see.

The only problem we had was with food...surprisingly. And it wasn't that we didn't like the food, because we LOVED it, but for some reason, all the recommended restaurants, on the day we wanted to go to them, were either closed or we couldn't find them. And the rest of the places were either not what we were looking for or too expensive. It was strange, we've never had issues like that. We did have traditional Spanish stuff like paella and tapas, but there were times that we had to resort to Hard Rock Cafe and McDonald's.

We also were able to see some flamenco dancing! People were always handing out brochures on the streets for different performances. We had the choice between Spanish guitar and a Flamenco show. Now, for everyone who knows David, you all know which one he wanted to see. But he let me pick, and we ended up getting the best of both worlds! There was live music with the dancers, and not just guitars, but a violin and cello as well so David was very happy. It was great, and we even had front row seats!! (...well, we paid for them, but still!)

We saw lots of interesting architecture, mostly from Antoni Gaudi, celebrations for Easter, the beach, parks, guys sell those "name brand" purses and sunglasses, and wallets, and belts, and pirated movies, etc etc.

Anyway, overall it was a great vacation...minues the fact that I lost my keys. Yeah...stinks. Chech out the tons of pictures we took.

Duncan seemed to have fun while we were gone too. We were told that he caught 3 hedgehogs! Maybe we'll keep the next one as a pet...as long as he doesn't kill it. Ha! He's so vicious. haha...

David's Birthday

This is probably the happiest 26-year-old you'll ever see!(Click on the picture for more pictures)

Yesterday, some of David's PhD friends got the idea to take a trip just across the German border to a US military base where there is a Taco Bell express. They brought back a TON of Taco Bell and really surprised David.

The guy who helped them get everything even sent a birthday card back with them for David.

Just another reason to appreciate the US military! ;o)

Videos from Munich

Kimber giggles to Munich


Glockenspiel in Munich

Monk.

Did you know that Munich/München means "monk"? I didn't either! It is Germany's 3rd largest city, and our longest getaway of the year so far.I uploaded all our pictures to picasaweb with detailed captions for most of them so this will just be a quick recap of a few things we did over the weekend.

We went to the BMW Museum...
...picked out the cars we want...
...had fun traveling with a baby...
...ate a lot of yummy food from famous places...
...saw lots of German things...
...took a free tour of the city...
...saw lots of buildings and learned lots of history...
...went to an engineering museum......visited the first concentration camp......and headed home.

On our way home we found Dr. Pepper. That was one of my goals on this trip. :o)

Check out all the pictures!

being brief

I helped decorate a surprise birthday cake! (all the pictures are on picasaweb)

It was fun! New hobby one day? I vote YES.We are going to Munich this weekend. It's for a beer festival, and that's why we're going...ha! You know I'm kidding. We will go to the festival to see everything and drink our favorite beer festival beverage, Spetzi, but then we'll be touring Munich for most of the time.

More when we return!

Project!

Boxes boxes boxes! I've gotten 3 boxes in the mail this week! One from each of our Mothers and one that I ordered.

Since I've gotten into cross stitching I decided to make Christmas stockings for us (thanks to Janice for the great idea :o) ...I'm copying her). My family never really did the whole Christmas stocking thing, so this is really exciting for me! I found 2 different patterns online that I liked and ordered them. Although, they both provide new challenges for me. One (David's) is just a pattern - so I have to buy everything in order to make it, and the other (mine) is not even a cross stitch. It's needlepoint. This is similar, but different! So...It'll be an interesting challenge.

That is a picture of my stocking needlepoint "kit". There is so much thread, and it's so much bigger than my cute little teddy bear! Which is finished by-the-way.

Like my grass? That is my personal contribution to the pattern.

Anyway...

Setting up is very time consuming. First I have to separate all the colors, then I have to separate all the threads! And there are a lot of them! And there are even beads and ribbons. I'll be taking pictures as I go, like I did before, but the progress may not be as evident since I'm working with a painted canvas (see first picture).

So "yeah!" or lots of free time to try new projects!

Rearranged.

We rearrange our apartment every now and then. Each time we move things around we like it better than the last time.

David went to scuba diving last night without me because if I had tried to dive my head would have exploded thanks to my allergies. So, I made use of my free time by rearranging!
We've had similar arrangements, but this one is kind of nice. We like the cozy feeling of where the couch is now, and regardless of that lovely pole in the middle of the room, you can see the TV from any spot on the couch.
In high school I would get bored with my room all the time. Sometimes I would be sitting in my room, trying to fall asleep, and get some idea about how I should move my furniture around. Then, no matter how late, I'd just start moving stuff! This happened the most at ridiculously late hours at night when everyone else was sleeping. But it was fun! I wonder if, when we have a real house, my rearranging habits will continue.

Can't wait to find out!!

He's growing.

I'm expanding the range of my talents. I'm cross stitching now. It's fun! This is the cross stitch I've been working on... my birthday present from Janice. Here are some progress pictures. It's fun to see the progression.
I've also already ordered some other projects to work on after this one. They are a bit bigger.

...we all fall down!

Originally, I was going to post on a different subject today, but something happened on my way to the grocery store that merits an entry.

Today it's raining (big surprise). And, if you've ever lived in France you know that people dress up to go just about everywhere. Where Americans would wear sweatpants to the grocery store, women here wear high heels.

So that sets the stage.

While walking, a girl came around the corner and slipped and fell. She fell straight down on her hiney!Well, instead of getting up, she just stayed on the ground, laid down (in the wet street!) and closed her eyes. ??? So these people started going up to her to see if she was ok. They were tapping her, shaking her, questioning her, and she didn't move. So then a bunch of people start getting out their cell phones and begin to call ambulences etc etc. And all of a sudden...she wakes up! (And very dramatically I might add) Now, remember when I told you she laid down in the street. She didn't hit her head, she didn't faint, she didn't break a leg... she was acting!

Ok, I get that she was embarassed, but come on! People were calling ambulances for her! Why the drama? Why not just get up, admit you fell, and next time not wear high heels...in the rain!

At least she gave everyone a good story to tell. Thanks girl that fell! I wonder if she'll admit to any of her friends that she was faking it. It was terribly obvious.

l'économie??

We have some terribly sad news. Our favorite bakery for baguettes...is closed! For the last few weeks it has been closed with a sign on the door that said they were closed for work. Either work on something inside or because they were doing work on the street and we thought it may have been affecting something in the bakery...

But, a few days ago, we saw THIS:
The "available" sign in the window...they're gone!

According to David "this is a monumental moment in our lives!" And I can't agree more. Now we have to walk a whole minute up the street to find another bakery...but we don't really like that one, so now we have to go a whole 5 minutes away to the next best one! It was just too nice to be able to walk down our 4 flights of stairs and around the corner for a fresh baguette.

So we were trying to decide whether it was because of the economy that they closed. Then we remembered...we're in France! Everyone buys baguettes! Bakeries are the LAST places that will go under! So...what's the deal?! Oh well. Life goes on!