Moving to Australia Street.

Since we now had an income and five children, we definitely wanted to find a permanent home to raise our family. My father was a real estate broker and occasionally his clients would end up with houses that they had invested in and the owners defaulted on. There was a beautiful yellow, four bedroom, 3 bath home on a cul-de-sac with a pool and a large yard in El Cajon that one of his clients was getting back. It was perfect for our growing family. We didn't have any kind of down payment and certainly couldn't qualify for a loan in the traditional way, but my father was able to do some creative financing and we moved into this beautiful home just after Tanner was born, in October of 1993. This would be our home for the next twenty years!

Tanner Scott Born August 16, 1993

We went into the hospital in the late evening/early morning to break the water and start pitosin. Things were slow going up until I got to 5 centimeters. At that time I was feeling pretty uncomfortable and feeling a lot of pressure. We summoned for the anesthesia doctor to come in and start the epidural. While we were waiting for him, the pain during contractions and the pressure started to get really intense. It wasn't very long that I started to tell the nurses that "he's coming, he's coming". This was my fifth baby and I know what the pressure feels like when the baby is coming. They didn't believe me. By the time the anesthesia doctor finished getting all his needles in and the epidural going, I was at 9 centimeters and ready to push Tanner out. I don't think the epidural even had time to do anything. Tanner was definitely the most painful childbirth, but he came fast, so that was good. A beautiful baby boy!

Big Bear with the Hardy Family

One of our traditional vacations included going to Big Bear with Grandma and Grandpa Hardy. They owned two timeshare units at Logonita Lodge and loved to get as many of us together as possible to enjoy some quality family time. One of grandpa’s favorite things was to rent a pontoon boat and get some Kentucky friend chicken and eat out on the lake. The grandkids all loved fishing from the pier, swimming in the lodge pool and playing pool in the community lodge. In May of 1993 we were able to get all of the Valko family, Megan, James’s family and us with Grandma and Grandpa. It was quite a family reunion and happy memories for all.

1992 Easter Photo

Kristi, Craig, Kelly and Amy Easter Photos 1993
 

1992 Family Picture

Easter 1992

Christmas 1991

Christmas 1991 Dwane St., El Cajon

 

Baby Kelly Homecoming

Jennifer Hardy, Megan, Janet, Lis Pulsipher, Mark Valko

Coisin Pic

Marilyn and Frenchie Pulsipher

Janet and Richard Hardy

Family pic with new baby Kelly, Craig, Amy and Kristi

 

Kelly Kathryn Pulsipher born August 14, 1991

Kelly was born shortly after we moved into our house on Dwane St. in El Cajon. Kelly's birth was somewhat smooth, but afterwards I had a subdural headache from the anesthesia that was so bad I was unable to have Kelly in my room for very long before I had to ask the nurses to take her back to the nursery. The doctors did a MMR and everything, but didn't find anything wrong with me. Even for the first 3 days we were home, I had someone helping me with everything because the headache was so bad and I was having hallucinations from the painkillers. After 3 days Gary took me back to the hospital and told them they needed to do something because the headache wasn't going away. They took me in right away and did a spinal patch that took less than an hour. Basically it is like a bandaid over the incision where they did the epidural. The pain was gone within the hour. I was so mad, why didn't they just do that before I left the hospital!!

Gary graduates from University of Illinois

The months preceding Gary's day of completing his orthodontic training were very stressful.  I was pregnant with Kelly and we knew we would be losing our insurance through the school when we left Illinois. We were trying to figure out if we should stay until Kelly was born, or just go. Gary needed to publish his research before he could graduate, there were some hic-ups there. We were also looking for a job to support our family upon leaving Chicago. Not many people were hiring, there was a war going on in the middle-east and I think people were nervous about the future of the economy. I remember one afternoon when we were sitting on the outside stairs of our small home completely overwhelmed and I said, "Oh, by the way I lost the diamond in my engagement ring today". It was such a small thing with everything else going on, we just couldn't even think about it. Fortunately, Gary's previous employer, Dr. Larry Bell, (while he was in high school) offered him a job in his orthodontic practice in El Cajon. Prayers were answered, we were going back to San Diego. We packed up what few belongings we had into a very sketchy moving truck with our vacuum strapped onto the back. We laughed and made jokes about it all the home, wondering if it was really legit and if our stuff would really make it to El Cajon. Gratefully, it did. We unloaded our stuff into Kirk's garage and spent the summer living with our parents, which was the worse summer of my life. Because we didn't have insurance anymore, I was forced to apply for Medi-cal. That was truly a humbling experience, especially when I thought things were going to be better when he graduated and this definitely did not feel better! We had three children and I was 7 months pregnant with Kelly. We lived with Gary's parents during the week and my parents over the weekend. Fortunately we were able to find a house to rent from Liz's aunt in El Cajon. It was a beautiful 3 bedroom home in Fletcher Hills, and we would be moved in before Kelly arrived. Yea!!

1991 Family Pictures

Easter 1991