Edward Arthur Gates, Jr.

Our beloved Ed was called home suddenly on June 20, 2009. Edward Arthur Gates, Jr. was born on Nov. 3, 1965, to Sue and Edward Gates in North Hollywood, Calif. He graduated from Clackamas High School in Oregon, 1984. Ed joined the Air Force in 1986 and was stationed in the Philippines. After leaving the Air Force, Ed had many adventures from Band Roadie, working in TV and Films, living on Catalina Island and eventually ending up in the culinary field. His true passion in life was his family and he was a devoted, loving husband and wonderful, caring father. He enjoyed good music, good movies, good food, and great martinis. Ed leaves behind his one true love and wife, Caryn Gates of Cathedral City, Calif.; his best buddies and sons, Jack, 9 and Grant, 2; his mother, Sue Gates of Seattle, Wash.; and his sister, Marsha Sturdevant of Seattle, Wash.; as well as many other relatives and friends that he cherished and adored. His passing leaves all that knew him with deep sorrow, but knowing that he is with his Dad and other loved ones brings us comfort and peace. A service to Celebrate his beautiful Life will be held on June 27, 2009 at 4:00 PM at the home of Ron and Mary Nayfack. Ed, we love you and have all enjoyed and relished this life more because of you being a part of it.

Eddie

On Saturday Evening my Brother Eddie passed away in what appears to have been a heart attack. He was 43 years old.

I don't want it to be true. Ed I will miss you.

Breanne update.

I took Breanne to a new doctor on Monday afternoon. Her name is Dr. Pang and we really liked her. Breanne is still having chest pains and the Zoloft that was prescribed for her anxiety makes her lose her appitite. Which for Breanne is not a good thing. She got weighed at the doctors and is down to 82 lbs!!!! Theydid another EKG which was abnormal so she now has to go have a pediatric EKG done and wear a Holter monitor for 48 hours to see if they can capture her palpitaions and chest pain episodes. We go in on the 29th for both. After a physical exam and a lengthy discusion with the doc she was prescribed new meds for the anxiety, rantadine to make sure the pain she has is not acid reflux and Ambien because she still is not sleeping. So now we wait to see if the new meds help.

Sick of being sick!

I was sick all last week. Ann, my co-worker, was on vacation so I was all alone in the office and sick to boot! I made it through though. Very stressfull week, always is for me when Ann is gone and then add not feeling well on top of that. It finally caught up with me though. I think I did not get the rest I needed over the weekend and on Monday afternoon I really started to feel just awful. Tuesday morning I had lost my voice and was coughing and could barely breath. So I stayed at home in bed all day Tuesday and Wednesday and today I am beggining to feel better. I am happy this is a 3 day weekend so I can get some rest.

Trampolean Fun

Finally got the Trampolene set up and the kids are really enjoying it.Skyler clearing the badmitton net. He could even do a back flip over it!

Mike, Breanne, Eric and Skyler.

Eric, Bre's boyfreind, trying to get her to bounce higher.

It was so much fun just watching them.

Deck day

We have spent the last couple of weekends pressure washing and stipping the front and back decks so we could re-stain them. Ron got the front done last weekend and on Saturday I did the back. Funny how I got the bigger job. Man what a HUGE job it was. We thought 2 gallons of stain would do 2 coats well it barely did 1 coat. She was a thirsty deck!

BEFORE :

AFTER!

It sure looks good now that it is all done.

Birthday dinner.

Ron and I went out to Black Angus for dinner last night to celebrate Ron's birthday. We had a really nice dinner just the 2 of. Ron had steak and Lobster and I had Terriaki Chicken. I also enjoyed a very yummy Raspberry Lemon drop.

They brought Ron this yummy brownie sundae for his birthday we only ate about 1/2 of it but it was good.

After dinner we walked over to look around in Petsmart, Joes and The Office Store. Since Ron did not need to leave for work until 8:30 we still had about an hour to kill so we walked down to Adamo coffee and had a cup of joe. Ron played a little guitar and we sat out on the patio and talked. It was a really nice night.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is Rons 40th birthday! He is in denial about it. 40 was really no big deal for me but it seems to be hitting him hard. Like he really feels this as the lose of his youth! I have been trying to tell him that he lost his youth YEARS ago! LOL! Funny though how just a number can evoke such emotions. So your 40! Big deal. Enjoy it before it turns into 50! EEEKKK!

Eat more Bananas

Breanne had her blood test done Wednesday afternoon. It was quite the ordeal for her. I thought for sure she was going to pass out. After they stuck her and filled up 5 tubes of blood Breanne turned ghostly white and began to sink in the chair! She drank some water and wobbled for a bit but then after about 5 min was better. Blood was sent out STAT so we would have the results first thing in the morning.

Thursday morning I am sick as crap but the blood test results for Breanne are good. Her heart enzymes are all normal and so is her thyroid. She is very low in Potassium and this can cause fatique and heart palpitations so that my be contributing to her anxiety. Docs prescribes potassium and wants her to also eat a diet rich in potassium. This means lots of bananas, oranges, potatoes and rich green veggies. So in all good news!

A trip to the Doctors.

Breanne has been suffering from Panic attacks for about 6 months now. Problem is they have been coming with increasing frequency and intensity. She doesn't know why she gets them. There seems to be no specific trigger that causes them. With my panic disorder I know what my triggers are, small spaces, the feeling of being trapped even if the space is not so small. Public speaking Gulp! Anything that is unfamilar can set me off. That is one of the reasons I am such a planner. Anywho back to Breanne. Yesterday she got a major attack at school and was not able to talk herself out of it. There are some things that we can do to help curb the attack. Counting your pulse outload. Deep breathing with positive talk like "I am OK", "This is just a panic attack I am breathing and will not die" Junk like that. But for her nothing was working. She has been seeing a counselor to learn coping skills and get to the root of the problem and we had an appointment scheduled with her regular doctor for Thursday to get her on some medication to help. Well obviously we could no longer wait until Thursday so I left work early and we got a walk in appointment to the doc. The Doc wants to do an EKG and draw blood to rule out any physical issues. This Freaks Breanne out! No Blood for Breanne! She has to have advanced notice and preperation time for this kind of thing. The EKG is done and it has an abnormality making the blood testing all the more inmportant. But NO WAY JOSE is Breanne having any blood drawn today. So Zoloft and Xanex prescriptions are written and we get to go home with a warning that if she has ANY chest pain we are to get her to the ER. Now that is comforting! So after we are home and the hysteria has passed Breanne and I discuss how important it is to get her back in to have the blood work done. So she has agreed to go in for it this Wednesday. She then chewed her first 1/2 tablet of Zoloft and within a few hours was passed out on the couch! I covered her with a blankie and let her and Brutus snooze on the couch. She had a rough day!