Dave and Laura's Excellent Adventures

Things have actually started to get better. Things aren't perfect but are a lot better. Laura has started to feel better. She is not back to 100% but is doing much better than before. She has come back to work and has been a lot more active.

Sadly our study abroad has been cancelled. We had to cancel our application. With all the events that took place we can't afford to go anymore. Our plans have now changed to go back to school. We weren't sure if we were going to get back into Utah State University. I didn't think I would have a hard time but there are limited spots for Laura's student teaching. I applied and got into a few classes for my major. Laura called the university and was able to get the last spot for student teaching. She will teach at the on campus pre-school. She will graduate in Spring. We were lucky to get the last spot. Our next step is getting housing. Obviously since we cancelled our study abroad we will be able to see all of our friends and family in Utah very soon. We are upset that we can't go to the Netherlands but things in Utah are working out. We are taking things as they come.

Our claim came through for our insurance and we were able to replace our laptop, ipod, nintendo ds, and kindle. It is nice to have some of our things back.

The job is still stressful and boring as always. We have been installing in Gary Indiana and Chicago lately. I would much rather install in Chicago than Gary. Gary is ghetto. Really ghetto. It is nothing like the happy song in the "Music Man". Today we drove all the way to Michigan to work. We drove almost 2 hours and did 3 jobs. It was extremely hot in Michigan. We were sweating like pigs. The customers noticed our abundance of sweat but did nothing. They don't believe in air conditioning where we install...

Like I said our hard times aren't over quite yet. Laura was brushing her teeth and a cap of her cavity fell off. A few weeks ago our headlight fell off and we need to get that repleaced. Finally, when we got our brakes fixed it messed up our alignment. These aren't a big deal but I just like to add it to the "summer from hell" tally. :)

I need to get Laura to update the blog more often. She adds pictures. If my blog has pictures it is because she added them in later lol. I apoligize for my boring, pictureless blogs.

We are doing good. Our moral is much better and we can make it through anything out here. I can't imagine what I would do if I were going through all of this alone. Things are tough but so much better since I have Laura by my side.

I can't wait to see all of my Utah friends again. We miss you all.

Dave

After seeing the doctor the first time we didn't feel completely satisfied. Laura wasn't feeling better, the pain was worsening, and the pain was moving so we knew that we needed to take her in again. We took her back on Saturday. We explained that the pain was worsening, now at the bottom of her ribcage on the left side. It also seemed to get worse at night time and after she would eat a big meal.

The doctor told us that she thinks her initial diagnosis is wrong (which is always comforting to hear). We asked the doctor if it could be her gall bladder. She said that it sounds like it could be but the gall bladder is on the right side and her pain is on the left. She now thinks that it is either a ulcer, gastritis (inflammation of stomach), or Esophagitis (inflammation of esophagus). They put her on some medication for the pain and another medication to help the inflammation. So far nothing has helped at all. The pain medication isn't helping the pain at all and the inflammation medication may take some time for it to work. I just hope this is the right diagnosis this time.

I also want to say thanks for all the ideas, support, and love we have gotten from all our friends and family. It means so much to us.

Dave

I feel like this blog has only been a rant of our bad luck. We hope that it is all over but then keep finding more and more bad luck.

For about a month, Laura has been experiencing chest pains randomly. Usually they will come at night and only last a few hours. On Monday, we came home from work and Laura was experiencing pain worse than ever. The pain lasted all night. We decided to take her into Good Samaritan Outpatient Center in Downers Grove. After explaining the pain the doctor told us she would like to do some tests to make sure it wasn't her heart or a blood clot in her lungs. The doctor proceeded to to an EKG, chest x-ray, blood work, urine work, and a CAT scan. The results all came back perfectly normal. This sounds like good news but is frustrating to hear that she is experiencing pain and we can't fix it. The doctor said the best guess is something called costochondritis. It is an inflammation of the ribs. They told her to take ibuprofen and rest. We have tried waiting and seeing if the pain goes away but the pain is still there and we aren't seeing any improvement. I have been stressing really bad about this and don't know what to do...

I want to take her back in but Laura says she's fine. If the pain gets worse I will take her in asap. But we can't afford to take her in for another ibuprofen diagnosis... We have no insurance and we will be getting the bill any day now. I'm sure it is going to be huge and just canceled our trip to the Netherlands. We can barely make it right now and with each event we are falling deeper and deeper into debt.

I'm sorry if this seems like complaining to anyone but it is all the truth. We are having a rough patch and I'm just telling it how it is. No sugar coating or anything. Like i said before we are survivors but we are really getting pushed to our limit. I just hope Laura's pain goes away. I will go into debt for the rest of my life as long as my wife is safe and healthy.

Dave

Soooo much has happened since last time we wrote. I shortly worte that our car got broken into. We lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff. It was pretty scary and frustrating. At least we are safe though. We haven't written because our laptop is one of the things stolen. (Right now we are at a library using a guest pass to work on some things).

We are doing ok. We are tough but can only take so much right now. We have had so much happen that we take turns getting down about things. We are survivors though and will push through it.

On June 6th at about 3:45 A.M. we got a text from Mike saying "Don't come. When your mom arrives you will know where to go. Good Samaritan Hospital." I was so tired that I looked at it and threw the phone down. I was pissed off that Mike was texting me so late. Laura asked what it said and I said, "It didn't say anything". Lucklily Laura asked to see the phone and interpreted it for me. I guess I was so out of it that I didn't realize the text was telling me Sami, my sister, was going into labor. Once we realized what the text said we threw on clothes and made our way to the hospital. We stayed there until 11:45 AM waiting for the baby to come. Finally we had to pick my mom up from the airport. As we were driving back from the airport to the hospital Sami gave birth to Kaiden Lawrenece Porenta. Though we weren't there for the actual birth we were so excited to be a part of the experience.

That week we spent as much time as we could with my mom, Sami, and Kaiden. We tried to visit as much as possible when we weren't working. The week went by too fast and soon it was Sunday. Sunday we took Diane, Dave's mom, out into Chicago. She really wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium. We drove out and had a great time. It was like an indoor Seaworld. The best part was the otters. Because otters are sweet!!! They had a dolphin show that was really cheezy. The coolest part was the fact that we were able to watch the dolphin show normally and under the water. Under the Aquarium they have a viewing that you can see the show from underneath. We all thought this was better than the actual show. You could watch the dolphins swim as fast as they could and then shoot out of the water. The dolphins were out of the water for so long and looked amazing under water during the show. We had so much fun with Diane.

After the show we took Diane to dinner. The morbid thing is after being at an Aquarium all day seafood sounded great. So we went to Red Lobster and ate what we watched at the aquarium... :)

Once dinner was over it was time to take Diane to the airport and say goodbye. This was tough. It was so great to have her out here. We already miss her company. It may also be the last time we see her for a while if we can go to the Netherlands. We are still hoping to go but aren't quite sure if we can afford it with all the problems that have arisen lately. Life is crazy and won't give us a break but we have eachother and can make it through anything.

~Dave~

Last night at an install our car was broken into. Our Gps, Ipod, Laptop, brand new stereo, Nintendo DS, Camera, Flipvid, and Kindle were all stolen. Life just got better. Luckily we are not hurt and are safe. It just sucks...

Laura got her turn so now it's my turn.

Work has been ok. We constantly meet interesting individuals at our jobs. As my knuckles hit the front door I wonder what will happen when the door opens. Every house is a new challenge but it keeps our lives interesting. Most days are slow so we go to Borders and use the Wifi and read or go to the public library and use the Wifi and read.

For valentines day I got Laura a Kindle. For those old folks reading (jk): A Kindle is an ebook reader. So I find books online and put them on the Kindle. It is like a small computer but when you read the books it looks like actual paper, not a big flashy computer sceen. Anyways, during our off time, Laura and I fight over who gets to read it. Laura just started reading the Enders Game series after completing the Percy Jackson series. I just finished the Angels and Demons, Davinci code, and The Lost Symbol series by Dan Brown and am now reading the Hunger Games. Reading is our life when we aren't working. But it's a good habit to have right now.

Life seems to love to throw new challenges in our direction. We are fighting to make it through each week but are doing pretty well. As you may have read our car broke down, so we had to fix it. We are still living in Exteneded Stay hotels, which we are uterly sick of. Earlier this week we got hit with a bunch more repairs: Our laptop battery broke, our car stereo stopped working, our check engine light turned back on and our car is making some new noises, and finally my drill broke (which is necessary for us to work). We have replaced what was needed and are keeping our heads up high but it is easy for us to become overwhelmed.

Mike, my brother in law and boss, has been trying to help us get an appartment but doesn't really have a say in it. He seems to think we are making too much of a big deal out of the sitution. We are frustrated because we would like to actually unpack our things and move into an apartment. This way when we come "home" from work we might actually feel like we are home.

I see his perspective and ours but we just want to have our own place instead of a hotel. Hopefully soon... I'm not trying to complain, rather express my opinions and feelings.

P.S. You may have asked: why the crap is there Otters randomly in his blog? Because Otters are freaking sweet! Laura told me to add pictures to my blog so there you go. I love Otters! Peace

On Sunday, we decided to go with Sami and Mike to go explore more of downtown Chicago. We went to Navy Pier. It is a pier, obviously, that has some great views of the city. They also have a lot of shops and a small carnival type area. It was fun to be able to just relax and walk around. The view was beautiful of both the water and the city. The shops had had Chicago on pretty much anything you could think of. They also had a lot of smashed penny machines which made Sami happy, because she collects smashed pennies.

Then we went to Bubba Gumps. It was awesome, because we only had to wait for 10 minutes. This gave us just enough time to use the restroom and explore the shop before we had to eat. Bubba Gumps is fun because they have a great atmosphere. If you don't know the resteraunt is based off the movie Forest Gump. They have movie quotes and memorabilia all over. Dave and I shared so that we could get as much seafood as possible. We ate five types of shrimp, mussels, clams, lobster tail, and CRAB LEGS(Our favorite food)!!! It was so delicious!

After Bubba Gumps we decided we would go home. We went to Sami and Mike's and just hung out for the rest of the day. All in all it was a great day off!