Friends, rockets & blasting a kidney stone to bits – Huntsville, AL…

We spent most of the week in and near Huntsville, AL. Our friends, Mel & Debbie, came in their RV and were our neighbors for the week. We were so excited to spend time with them!

Playground, basketball, dog-walking, Chinese-food, Walmart run, miniature golf, s’mores and pancakes. Lots of great conversations, laughs, hugs and cuddles – we had the best time!

Our little girls are typically terrified of dogs. I was so happy to see them warm up to Paisley and Paxton. Our kids just loved taking turns walking the dogs.

It’s fun having friends with us at places like Walmart. They get to see what our normal is. Right after we walked into Walmart someone asked if our kids were all ours and then said, “Y’all are crazy.” Haha. That’s just a typical part of our everyday life.

All our kids wanted Mr. Mel as their buggy driver. He made it like a theme park right there in Walmart.

This miniature golf course was at the RV park. It was a lot of fun watching the kids play. And I happily announce to you…I beat my husband. We have played miniature golf many, many times, and I don’t recall ever beating him. He is a really good golfer. Most of my golfing is dependent on luck rather than skill. Ha.

We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and roasted marshmallows for s’mores.

Doesn’t get much better then sitting around a campfire telling stories with friends.

One morning Debbie came over to our RV and made pancakes. Our kids were so excited. 99% of the time we eat protein bars for breakfast. Watching the pancakes be made, helping make them and eating them – our kids loved the whole experience!

On Thursday we went the the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL.

It was awesome seeing the big rockets, and our kids had a great time learning and exploring.

In the midst of all this fun, I knew I had a kidney stone that needed to be laser blasted. Last Sunday night/Monday morning, I woke up with terrible pain in my lower right abdomen, side and back. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, so I felt sure it was either my appendix or a kidney stone. I drove myself to the emergency room in Georgia. There I found out I had a 1cm kidney stone stuck in my right ureter. I was pacing the hospital room in pain even after being given morphine by IV. I was in pain!

Once we moved on to Alabama, I saw a urologist. He didn’t see how I’d pass a kidney stone that large on my own, so he suggested he break it up and put in a stent. We extended our time in Alabama one day so that I could get the surgery done. Mel & Debbie stayed two extra days to be there with us and for us. We cannot express how thankful we are that they were there and chose to stay with us! It’s amazing how God aligns things to work out, even in hard times. I had the surgery done on Friday, and I was in so much pain after I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to drive the next day or not. After resting all day, I did feel well enough to drive the next, though.

I am on the mend and expect to be feeling better and better each day. On a funny note…when the urologist scheduled the surgery, he said I’d need to come back in a week to have the stent removed. I explained that we are traveling and asked if it is possible to get the stent taken out by another doctor in a different location. He responded, “Oh, I’ll just leave a string on it for you and you can pull it out.” Thinking he was joking, I laughed and said, “Seriously?” He said, “Yeah, you can do it.” Alrightythen. Ha!

It’s been quite the week! Hard and so, so good. We are looking forward to more RV adventures with Mel and Debbie in the future – ideally without kidney stones!