Marie Parr Wangler (Bob's grandmother)

Marie Parr Wangler, 84, passed away Monday, June 5, 2006, at a local nursing home.

Funeral Mass: 11 a.m. Friday at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church. Burial: Mount Olivet Cemetery. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Greenwood Funeral Home, with rosary at 7 p.m. in Greenwood Garden Chapel.

Marie was born July 12, 1921, in Tarrant County, in the area now known as Haltom City, to Lucia Mais and Arthur N. Parr Sr. She was a homemaker and a longtime resident of Haltom City.

Marie was preceded in death by her husband, Ervin J. Wangler; brothers, Charles E. Parr and Arthur N. Parr Jr.; and sister, Helen Moore.

Survivors: Sons, Michael Ervin Wangler and wife, Joan, of Washington, D.C., Daniel J. Wangler and wife, Joann, of Allen and Jim Wangler and wife, Jacqui, of Cedar Hill; daughters, Kay Haaser and husband, Bob, of Irving, Beverly Gordon and husband, Mark, of Lenexa, Kan., and Barbara Steward and husband, Kenneth, of Arlington; 11 grandchildren; sisters, Margaret Price and husband, Bill, and Patricia Burk, both of Hurst; brother, Raymond Parr and wife, Pauline, of Richland Hills; and sisters-in-law, Theresa Matzer of Richland Hills, Jenny Parr of Arlington and Valerie Parr of Haltom City.
Copied from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 6/8/2006.

Happy Birthday BOB!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to my Bobby
Happy Birthday to you!

I know, I'm a couple hours early. :)

Trip to South Dakota

Bob and I took a trip up to South Dakota for my sister's high school graduation. I posted some of the pictures over at sname. Since all us girls were together I took a shot of my 3 sisters, below.


We took a quick trip to Mt. Rushmore, walked around the trail, simulated blowing up the mountain, fun stuff.

Army on Hold

My brother's entry into the Army has been temporarily postponed.

While he was pretty bummed over the weekend, the rest of the family saw it as a blessing in disguise, particularly because my dad was admitted into the hospital last Tuesday due to chest pains and by Thursday morning the doctors were saying his chance of survival was 50-50. Envision family freak out.

My understanding of the situation with my dad is a little hazy, but his doctor said that it appeared that the bypass on one of the arteries was in the wrong location and that to correct it they'd have to go back in. In addition to that, he had 3 other arteries that were clogged. The method the cardiologist wanted to use was pretty risky, since my dad has already had open heart surgery and is held together with wires and all, so my parents got a second opinion from the surgeon who suggested that the procedure to get to his heart would be too risky and to use stents rather than a bypass.

The doctors got together and concluded that the surgeons plan was safest and the cardiologist was successful at placing stents in 2 of the 4 arteries. Afterwards, he told us that the damage was likely already done to the heart from lack of blood from the arteries he could not fix and that the only other option was to try the bypass, which he did not think we should do now.

That was last Friday and by Sunday my dad was able to go home.

After spending another weekend in the hospital I can see why Joe is interested in becoming a medic, HEB has some really great nurses. Of course, he's currently talking about going to medic school and holding off on nursing school for a couple years because he's really interested in getting out of Texas. Personally, I'd prefer him to get his RN first, then travel but I'm a school first play later kind of gal and I know he's going to do what he wants regardless and seems unconcerned about the prospect of going to Iraq, and in his words, "... would rather die in Iraq than spend the rest of his life as a pizza delivery man...."

Of course, I know going to war is the chance you take when you join the military, it's part of the job, but as his sister, I'd much rather have him in a military hospital compared to the frontline in Iraq. Yea, I'm selfish, I don't care. I just know I had to look at my dad's brothers, a medic in the Marines, picture on the mantel my entire childhood and I'd prefer my brother not suffer the same fate.

Joining the Army

After months of intense exercise/starvation, my brother is scheduled to swear into the U.S. Army tomorrow morning in Dallas. If everything goes according to plan and his weight is under the limit, as his recruiter claims it is, he is scheduled to ship off to Fort Jackson, South Carolina next Tuesday.

I’m kind of at a loss for words on what to say concerning him joining the military. Emotionally I feel as though I’ve been put through a ringer. Not because I disapprove of military service, because I was set to join the military, had taken the ASVAB and was regularly talking to a recruiter until I got accepted to A&M, well, that and I let a stupid boy get in the way of my plans, but because he’s my little brother and I worry about him. My feelings on the war in Iraq aside, the thing I fear the most is losing him. I couldn’t imagine living the rest of my life without one of my best friends around, because even though he’s been a huge source of frustration for me in recent the past, he makes my world a brighter place just by being in it. Not to mention how much I’d miss the phone calls just to tell me corny jokes.

My recent experience has made be realize how true "Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. Hate leads to suffering" is, because I quickly traversed that path emotionally. It took him telling me that his AIT training would be in San Antonio and that he may take advantage of the additional training programs the Army has for me to simmer down and release some of the tension that had built up in my back and shoulders.

If you take out my fear for his well being and fear of losing him, I’m immensely proud of him. He’s lost so much weight, more than 30 lbs in 2-3 months that I’m just blown away by his determination and drive. Of course, I always knew he had it in him and told him so repeatedly, but for so long he seemed hesitant and unsure what to do with his life that this "NEW JOE" just knocks me back a bit where I just stare at him in wonder.

Plus, he couldn’t have picked a more admirable career to pursue in the military than the one he did. After Basic is over, he’s scheduled to begin classes at the medical training facility in Fort Sam Houston. Not only will he be close, but he’ll be pursuing the career that will give him better opportunities when he leaves the service than what most of the college graduates I know had when they graduated. His first step is to get Medic training and afterwards he plans to enter into either the RN or Physicians Assistant program. Of course, even if he stops after medic training it would still qualify him to be a paramedic, where his future career potential will be high.

I still worry about him and I hope we still have time to hang out but most of all, I want him to know how proud I am of him and that I wish him the best as he heads to Dallas to swear in tomorrow morning and as he heads to South Carolina for basic next week.

Congratulations Citizen Bob!

We just got word that Citizen Bob was accepted to the Physics Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Dallas. The secretary called to tell him this afternoon and told him he should get the official paper work in a week or two. He will be starting there this fall.

Yea for BOB! :)

HSP IV

My dad went back into the hospital Monday morning, it was supposed to happen Friday, but North Hills Hospital is incapable of performing the simplest of tasks without making it complicated.

Monday morning, he went in to have surgery on his hernia and the aneurysm in his upper right leg. The surgery went well. It took a little while for his pulse to return to his leg, but it did and he warmed back up and is now in the Recovery Center over at HEB.

Other than the slow return of his pulse to his leg and a nurse giving him morphine (to which my mom said, "You realize he's allergic" and a mad dash ensued) his only other episode happened this morning when his retard of a nurse stopped paying attention to his blood sugar and he passed out. My brother had just been in to see him and he said that my dad looked totally out of it and was not able to talk or anything. Just minutes after Joe left he passed out and his nurse was suddenly very interested in what was going on with him.

Hopefully they'll get a better nurse on him this afternoon and he'll be ok to go home Thursday or Friday.

Update: I found out last night my dad's blood sugar level had dropped to 18 mg/DL (normal is around 100). After my mom found out what happened, she called up my dad's nurse and gave his nurse a ear full. :) I love my mom. :) She started yelling at them telling her that my dad needs to be on a potassium drip since he won't eat while in the hospital. Of course, it took the doctor telling the nurse to put him on the drip before he did it, but my mom had a moment of "I told you so" when she found out that the hospital put him on the drip.

Of course, my mom gets over things pretty quick and by last night she was sharing kitty pictures with the nurse. As long as she's doing her job and making sure my dad's ok, my mom is cool.

Hospital Suck Part 3

2005 decided it would like to end on a crappy note and sent my dad packing to the hospital the day after Christmas. I knew Christmas Eve that he would be making a trip to the ER, but not wanting to be in the hospital Christmas day he decided he'd fake (in my opinion) feeling better until the holiday had passed.

So Monday, my brother, husband and I took my dad to the ER. Close to 2 hours later he was given a room. Unfortunately he had to share his room (I'm not really sure whether this is a good or bad thing, because if you're super serious, from what I saw, you have a room to yourself). My brother and I were the only two allowed back in the room with my dad, so Bob was lucky to evade the discussion on why the girl sharing the room with my dad was there*. Of course, even while we had to put up with her incessant talking we were slightly amused with making up theories on why she has had so many "domestic altercations" with men** and with my dad mouthing "Shut up."

After another hour or two, a doctor came in to check on my dad and sent him out for a couple xrays (he had pain in the area near his gall bladder). Several xrays, pokes and prodes later they determined that my dad had diverticulitis and was admitted to the hospital (it may have happened in reverse, my memory fails me).

Well, after being in the hospital all week, he was finally released this evening (hopefully his dog didn't go completely insane during his absense; she gets depressed when he's not around).

While I hate hanging out at the hospital, I feel as though I've learned a lot from these "adventures" this past year. The two biggest things I've learned:

Patience; I was getting a bit crazy with wanting a house and babies now and after spending an extended time with my sister and her kids and time in the hospital I realized how horrible of a parent I would be right now. Bob and I are so unstable right now. We don't know where Bob will be accepted to grad school, we still owe 58% of what we owed when I graduated, I have career issues... we're just not in a good stable place yet.

Moderation good, exclusion bad; A least in part (I'm no doctor) diverticulitis is caused by a poor diet; in particular, the exclusion of fiber from your diet. And while I knew moderation was better than exclusion, seeing the effects of exclusion makes it clear how important a balanced diet is (This doesn't include smoking, where exclusion is good).

* She had a "domestic altercation" with her ex-boyfriend and depending on which version of the story you believe, the one she told when she first arrived at the hospital or the one she told the cop 30 minutes later; either her ex, while they were fighting, slammed her against the car roof, or she slammed into the ceiling while trying to get away from him while hitting him with her heel.

** Her ex-husband broke her jaw about a year ago.

Hospital Suck Part 2

My dad made it out of the hospital Sunday afternoon and is now home snuggling with his dog.

The bypass went really well and other than a seriously negative reaction to morphine and ambien he did super. They knocked him out Thursday afternoon since he hadn't been sleeping and had gotten into a disoriented rage due to the medicine and slept till Friday afternoon when he woke up to be his cheerful self, sort of, he thought his family had been a dream and when he realized we were real he was overcome with emotion.

All he needs to do is keep from smoking, eat healthier, exercise and keep healing. Now if only we can convince my mom that she should quit smoking and maybe I won't have to go through something like this again...