Judy Hunt, 1946-2011

Amanda And Her Mom At Our Old Apartment

As you may have read in the prior two posts, Amanda's mom, Judy, was very sick with the cancer. This was her second bout with it. She beat it the first time in 2010, but this time it was just too much and she passed away two days ago, July 28 2011.

We spent most of this past week with her at the Denver Hospice At Lowry. It was a wonderful place for her to be. The staff was so caring to both Judy and all of us family members.

So needless to say, this week has been pretty upsetting for Amanda and I and others. At one point in this whole process we knew it was coming to this, which it made losing her a little bit easier. Not that much though. It's never easy losing someone you care about.

So I just want to say to my mother-in-law Judy Hunt: Wherever you are, I hope you can read this. Thank you for your daughter Amanda, I love her so much. You done good, Judy. And thanks for the memories I have and all the wonderful (and some not so wonderful) memories Amanda has. We'll see you in some other place and time. Watch over us the best you can and say hi to our grandpas for us. Take care.

                                               ____________________________________

At some point in the next day or so I will make an obituary type posting for Judy. We don't have any sort of memorial arrangements made yet but will keep you posted if you are interested. If you wanted to send flowers or anything like that, we instead request that you give a donation to the Denver Hospice in Judy Hunt's name as they rely heavily on donations and we'd like to see them keep on operating. If you want or need more info you can email me at brad@stayathomebrad.com. Thanks.

Still Here

We're still at the hospice. Amanda's mom is still "sleeping", hasn't woke up for any length of time since Friday. We were here until 4 this morning when we had to go home to get some sleep. We came back around 11 and have been here since (it's a quarter after 6 pm as I write this).

Last night someone died here. They have a bell that gets rung whenever that happens. I didn't actually hear it but Amanda was out roaming the halls and heard it and saw them come in with a fancy gurney to take the person away. We'll most likely be ringing a bell soon. I don't know if I want to be here when it happens though.  It's not real pleasant being here with her in this state. If it's going to happen I wish it would just do it, even if I'm here. Nobody should have to go through this kind of thing when there's virtually no chance of recovery.

Well, that's it for now. Sorry to have un-happy past two postings. I usually try to stay upbeat and all that but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. I'll talk to you all later though. And have a great day.

Getting Near The End

Sad day day for Amanda and I . As you may have read, we have been visiting Amanda's mom, first in the hospital and now at the hospice. Well, Amanda was sleeping in preparation for her midnight shift when she received a call from a nurse at the hospice saying if you want to see her again, best to do it now.

We'd been out to see her the two days prior and she was very "lethargic" (as one nurse put it). Meaning she didn't wake up almost at all while we were there, or since Friday for that matter. Now she's worse.

So we came out to the Denver Hospice after the call and that's where I am right now.

Three Things To Read

Well, there's not much to report in this report. So I will just ramble on for a while and see what can be came up with to write about.

One. We're less than 68 days away from the due date. I know this because of the handy countdowner located in the right sidebar of this blog. It's nice to have because I sure as heckfire can't remember how many days till something happens. When I first put that on there were about 100 days to go. So I've been watching it slowly count down, the days are seemingly going by faster as time goes by. The first 15 took an eternity. The next 15 were quicker. The 15 after that will be done before I know it, and then the rest are just going to zoom by so fast and then we'll have a new baby! Yay!

Two. I still haven't received any addresses for to send Postagrams to. It's ok if you don't, but if you want a special delivery around October 1 you could email me your postal address to brad@stayathomebrad.com and get you some. Both my mother and I have received ours and they are pretty nice. A lot higher quality than I was expecting. They're like real postcards you'd find at your favorite gift shoppe, but they have a personalized message and image on 'em. Neat! So yeah, if you want one let me know. Even if you don't want one feel free to send an email to the provided email address. I have not received any emails as a result of this site, not even Spam! What the hey!

Three. @AStayAtHomeBrad has been getting quite a few Twitter followers as of late. I don't think any of them are high quality followers, like I doubt they'll read much that I post. But it's nice just the same. Why just a week ago there were only 10 and now there's slightly over 100. Quite a jump. We'll see how this affects any of the page views on here or wherever else. I'm a little skeptical. Maybe you could follow me on Twitter also, this might help.

Four. There is no more. You have reached the end of this posting. If you feel you have received this message in error, please refresh the page and try again. Thank you.

Baby Shower Or: Brad Wears A Blanket

Well, as you may have noted we attended a baby shower held by my mother yesterday. We got so much cool stuff and had lots of fun. We played the melted candy bar in the diaper game. (They all look like doody!) And we played this game where there was a bowl of rice with little safety pins mixed in with it. You were blind folded and had to sort through it to pick out the pins. Man was that hard. It doesn't seem like it would be but it is, trust me. You had only 1 minute to do it. The winner only got 8. I got 6, I was bad. The rice and the pins both felt the same to me. Very hard to differentiate between the two without being able to see. I guess it goes to show how much we rely on our eyes for things. I better start taking better care of mine, eh?

Not A Father

As you know, I am an expectant father. I have been involved in the dad blogging world by way of reading and a little commenting and all that. But I'm not really a dad blogger yet so I can't get fully involved because I don't have all the same experiences. I wish there were more expecting first father bloggers out there. I guess they wouldn't last long though, 9 months tops. So I'll just have to wait till September or October and then I'll be fully enmeshed in the world of dad bloggers.

One of the best that I have found so far is

Empire Avenue

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I have started playing on Empire Avenue recently and it is very addicting. It's a stock market for online activities. I am a "company" with shares you can buy. So how it works is you link up all, or as many as you want, of your internet doings, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, You Tube and any sort of Blog/Rss feed you have. This gets you your current stock value. People at this point can buy shares in you. As people buy more shares, the price goes up. Also as you do more on your social networks you also get some activity scores. The more active you are in social networks the more you are worth.

On The Road To Baby Time

A couple days ago we went off to the hospital for our monthly checkup. The doctor was so impressed with Amanda's blood glucose scores. I think she almost was about to say that it seemed like the diagnosis was incorrect (as I still think) but she didn't. That's ok though, I'll get over it. I know I've said this before but being diagnosed with gestational diabetes isn't too bad of a thing. I have already lost about 15 lbs using our low carb low sugar diet. My beer/food/sitting around/sympathy pregnancy belly is shrinking daily!

We also are now on what was supposed to be 2 week doctor visit intervals, however due to their having no openings it'll be 3 weeks. That's how you know you're getting close to baby time.

Floppy Humped Camels and Other Delights

A couple of weeks ago Amanda and I went to the Denver Zoo. What a grand time we had. We both hadn't been there for some number of years. It was fun getting to see all the animals. Who doesn't like to see cute little animals in a safe setting? Nobody, that's who. We plan on having spending quite a bit of time at the zoo when we have a kid because kids definitely love the zoo. And if you get the family pass it's quite affordable.

Although the zoo animals are pretty cute, they also can be pretty gross.

Saturday's Alright...

For Blogging. Yeah, that's right, I took a classic rock song title and changed it to meet my own needs. Deal with it. Ha. Anyways, how are you all doing? This has sure been an exciting week or two. Several things have gone on. One, I got Hulu Plus which has made me decide to cancel my subscription to Dish Network. Two, I am on Google+, or Google Plus, and three, I have just yesterday been invited to Spotify via Klout and it is awesome, and four, we are ever closer to having our baby.

Why just today we were at a birthing class, part two of two. Today wasn't as good as last Saturday because both Amanda and I had to work till real late and the class was real early. So we were both super tired during it. The class itself was alright though, we were just sleepy and fidgety .

Postagrams Need Addresses To Be Sent

Hi again. Just stopping by to add a little bit regarding my last posting. I figured I might as well make a whole new one as opposed to adding on to the old one. So here's the deal. I am thinking about sending out the Postagrams right after our lil' baby is born. The thing is, is that I don't have very many people's addresses.

So, if you are interested in getting one of these awesome postcards/pop-out pictures,

Postagram For Mongo

Hey there. Yesterday I found this neat service available from my Android phone. It's called Postagram. It's a free app that lets you send a postcard with a picture of your choosing and a short message to anyone for 99¢. (Alt 155 is the cents sign). It seems pretty cool. Also, the picture, which is 3"x3", pops out of the postcard so you can have just the picture if you want.  I sent one to myself and to my mom to test them out. So we'll see how they look in real life. They say it will arrive in 2-5 days which, if true, is pretty fast. I'm thinking of sending these out after the birth of our baby as a way of introducing her to everyone. So don't be surprised if you know us and get one in the mail.

Tuesdays With Brad

Oh hello there. Been a couple or few days since we last spoke. Well,  since I spoke. What has happened? We finished our birth class or the first of 2 birth classes. We go back Saturday for part 2 where I guess we'll be viewing some videos of real life births.

Amanda and I have watched some videos on YouTube and it is not very pleasant to see. It is part of nature and necessary for life and whatever. But it's kinda gross. I imagine that my baby's birth won't be as bad to see since it will be mine and not someone elses. Like a fart. Lol.

Another thing, we had a crazy storm tonight. It rained so hard and lightninged so much seemingly right over my head as I was coming home from work. There was one that I know was only blocks away, it was so bright and so thunderous. But I made it home safe and un-electrocuted. 

Well, my time is almost up here so I best be going now. I'm typing this on the Blogger app and the picture looks like it might be sideways. If it is I apologize and will fix it in the morning on the real computer. I'm then, have a great day!

[Ok, I fixed the picture. The Blogger app sure doesn't do photos well.]

At The Baby Class

Hey there! We're at our baby class right now. We almost didn't make it due to I-225 being shut down to one lane. That is my least favorite road ever.
Fortunately another couple was in the same situation so we got to walk in late together.
We've just barely started, we go till 2 today. We have all introduced ourselves and now we're getting down to business. We're looking at pictures/drawwings of what a baby does to the inside of a lady and all the lady parts.  Ewww. JK. It's nature.
Well I better get back to paying attention in class or I'm gonna get in trouble. Type to you later!

A Taste of Coke

I haven't had any soda pop for a couple or few weeks until tonight. A nice glass of Coca Cola sounded like it would be delicious. It turned out to not be the case. It wad not actually good tasting at all and I had to dump out most of it. Weird. Over and out good buddy.

Hulu Plus ?

Hey again, an early posting from me for a change. It's actually late when I'm writing this but thanks to the magic of the internets it will be early when posted!

I just wanted to see if any of you had an opinion on this very very important matter. You see I currently subscribe to Dish Network. I worked there for a short time and got suckered into it. I didn't have pay TV for quite a while before and it wasn't too bad. But now after having it I like it. But I don't like paying the bill every month. It's not quite as bad as it would be with Comcast from what I see and hear but it's bad nonetheless. So I'm thinking about dropping it. The good thing about getting Dish as an employee was that I was not entered in any sort of contract with them.

I have been seeing on my XBox the big push for Hulu Plus in the past couple months and today I finally gave in and signed up for the 1 week free trial. It seems pretty good so far and you can't beat the price. It's only about $8 a month. Way way less than Dish. Do any of you have Hulu Plus? Do you find it comparable to regular pay TV? I haven't had a good chance to look through the shows that are offered. Do they have a wide selection of shows that aren't completely horrible?

I'll do some more checking around on the Hulu regarding programming offered during my one week trial period. The two shows I have watched so far have been good quality, at least in regards to picture and sound and no buffering problems. So that's a uh, plus. I think that Hulu Plus combined with Netflix streaming may suit all my tv viewing needs. Because as you know every stay at home dad watches loads and loads of tv.

Well, respond in the comments if you've tried it or know anyone who has and they've told you about their experiences, good or bad. And thank you for taking the time to respond to this most important of questions.

LTC

Howdy there buckaroos. It's your old pal Stay At Home Brad again, back with another exciting entry into the hottest blog site around. 

So Amanda and I have been dealing with her mother's very bad sickness. Like I said a prior day, she's not doing too good. She has been in the hospital for about a week now and she won't be going back home. She'll be moving into a nursing home, probably tomorrow or at least in the next few days. She had been at her house being "taken care of" by her husband but that wasn't working out too well for various reasons we won't go into here.

Anyways, she'll be moving in to the nursing home where they will take good care of her and keep her comfortable and whatever. She will then at some point move to hospice care when it comes closer to her time. The thing is is that I guess it is going to cost $200 per day at the nursing home, and this is even after whatever insurance they have.

Another View

Hola amigos. It's been a long time since I rapped at you, about 24 hours. Let's see, what to type about...
I don't remember if I told you all but since Amanda got the gestational diabetes, they have to do ultrasounds to make sure the baby isn't getting too big. You see, the G.D makes the baby get too big, resulting in premature and/or non-traditional birth methods (c-section). So they have to check it visually.
What this means for us, I assume, is that we should get a for sure look at if we are having a boy or a girl. They thought girl but weren't sure earlier, it would be nice to know for certain which we probably will. So that's another good thing to come out of G.D. I know i've mentioned the other in another post so I won't go into it here.
Well then, it's well past when I should have gone to sleep so I best be going now. Keep on keeping on and make sure to tell at least one person about SAHB.com tomorrow. Have a good one ya'll.

Tuesday Night Writings

Oh hello there. Nice to see you again. After those 3 days off it sure seems hard to get back on that horse and write. But I shall give 'er a go and do it, I will get my groove back like Stella did.
We celebrated our post hospital 4th of July by cooking up one of our butcher shop T-bone steaks and it was so good. One of the best steaks I have had ever. We also grilled up some mushrooms, onions and Anaheim peppers (spicy). We got to see a fireworks show from our porch and it was pretty neat. This is the last child-free 4th of July we will have. Next one we'll have a 9 or so month old baby!
All of our holidays will be different from now on (except Labor day 2011) and I think they will be different in a good way. It will be more, or all, about our kid. And we'll soon be able to go on Easter egg hunts and fun things like that. Also, trick or treating. Finally I can have free candy again! Because candy is bad for kids and great for adults. Unfortunately we will have to wait for two Halloweens from now because I don't think 1 month olds should go trick or treating.
A'ight then. That'll be all for today. More tomorrow. Have a great time at whatever you do.

Three Days Missing

Oh how quick the time goes. It has been 3 whole days since I last posted. Did you miss reading the brilliant postings here at SAHB? I know I sure did miss posting them. But between working late, Black Op's double XP weekend and our frequent visits to Amanda's mom in the hospital there just haven't been enough hours in the day.

I'm actually posting this from the hospital. We were here most of yesterday and probably will be a good part of today. Her mom is pretty sick from the cancer and now an infection has set in so it's not real good right now. She probably isn't too long for this world.

This is or will probably be the second death in our family since we knew about our baby. My grandpa died in January, right after our baby was created.

I guess things like this will happen more and more as we get older. It is a part of life and all that, but it's definately not the best part of life.

So we're (probably) about to witness the beginning of one life and the end of another all within a short period. Amanda is handling things real well. She is doing whatever she can to help out her sick ol' mom. It will be tough for sure, but we can't do anything about it.

Well uh, happy 4th of July! I hope you're having a better time than we are here. We plan on leaving at some point and going home to cook our steaks Amanda's brother got us yesterday from Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meats. They're some nice looking T-bones and we're super stojed to grill them up.

Ok then, don't blow off your fingers playing with the fireworks. The doctors here say this is a very busy weekend for them because of such things, so don't be one of them. I for one will not be blowing things up (although I would like to) because if I lose my fingers, how will I type this?