The Funny Farm

2010-05-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

My Kamden is graduating from K-5 at Spearman Elementary in a few weeks and we couldn't be more proud. She has learned so much this year! We are amazed by how hard she works and how determined she is (when she is not tired). She has toughed out having homework every night after such a long day of learning. Guess this will make her more prepared for the first grade. Learning new lightening words has become a daily task . . . and she is mastering it. Creative spelling is questionable to me, but according to the learning professionals this is the best way to learn correct spelling. The jury is still out on that one! Hopefully "real" spelling will click soon, because the crazy, creative stuff is killing us all!

This picture kind of gives me chills. It is almost like a flash forward! Merely a blink and she will be graduating from high school and our flock will have left the nest. Oh, my . . . don't even want to think about that or I will cry. We have many more school years, full of challenges, successes, accomplishments, and maybe a couple of small failures to keep her humble, but I am sure she will go through it all with that big smile on her face. Kamden is our rising 1st grader and we love her with all of our hearts!

Angel & the Rice family are in China with ANDREW!

2010-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

The Rice family of 7!

Angel (my sista' from another mother) and her family have made it to China safely and are enjoying a lot of sight seeing and bonding with the newest member to their family, Andrew. On Monday I helped her pack a few small bags and load her car with all the suitcases for their trip. On Tuesday they were on their way to Chicago and then to Beijing, China (13 hour flight). It was Wednesday evening when they landed in China. They had dinner and settled into their hotel room and tried to sleep for a few hours before meeting Andrew Thursday morning. It was still Wednesday night here and my favorite show "American Idol" was on at the same time as the Rice family was meeting Andrew. I sat at the computer with headphones on my head, cell phone in my hand and "American Idol" on the TV. I was so stressed out for them as the time ticked away! Thank goodness for some comic relief from the horrible singers who were trying out! Lord, what are some people thinking? Laughing is good for the soul and I quite enjoyed laughing while waiting to hear any news from them. Finally, the phone rang and I was given the ok to get on Skype and there they were! I could see Andrew, Angel and Hal and the other kids were bouncing with joy on the hotel bed in the background.
I am so very happy for them! Andrew is fitting in just fine. Loves to eat and belly laughs. He is such a blessed child to be coming home to the good ol' USA with the Rice family who will love him unconditionally for the rest of his life! I have only gotten to talk to Angel twice on SKYPE, but it was great and I almost felt like I was there. By the way I regret not going. If only money grew on trees and my kids were self sufficient - then I could have gone! Being the realist I am I figured I would be good support on the home front - not to mention I feel very needed here!

I am getting emails everyday giving me post to add to Angel's blog and loads of great pictures. I am spending hours trying to get everything updated, complete with pictures, including her FaceBook. Seems like time actually flies when I am on the computer. So much for getting anything done around here. My family thinks I have become addicted to the computer over the past few days and possibly need an intervention. They are just going to have to get used to this until our dear friends arrive safely home and plant their feet on South Carolina soil. February 5th is the date they will be coming home and we plan on making it quite the big deal at the Greenville / Spartanburg airport! I am going to try to get FOX News to come out to use the Rice family as a human interest story like I did with Anna Grace's arrival. Keeping my fingers crossed that works out.
Angel's mom (Anita a/k/a Nana) and I have talked several times everyday exchanging information. She has talked to Angel a lot more than I have so she has loads to share. She has been working on a scrapbook for them to occupy her time. She also wishes she had gone with them, but if she had I wouldn't have her to talk to, so selfishly I am so glad she stayed home. I got some large poster boards from her to make "Welcome Home" signs for the family's return. Gotta' get to work on those because she keeps asking me if I have them done. Feb. 5th just seems so far away right now!
It is Saturday, so I better get busy doing something other than sitting at this computer. My house full is feeling a bit rejected! I think the Jolly Green Giant creeped in and shook the house, so I have got to do something productive or it will self-destruct! Lovely laundry is always calling if nothing or no one else is!!!

I'm Back in 2010!

2010-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

The DAVENPORT Family

My, my, my! It has been quite a while since I posted! I am such a procrastinator! First of all we are all doing great, including my Daddy! He has been home for a few months now and continues to heal. My Mother has taken great care of him and has become an unregistered, totally unofficial, but wonderful NURSE! Daddy is still not fully healed on his chest or belly, but in time Doctor Fowler believes that he will. We really don't want him to have to go back in the hospital, so slow healing works for us.

Christmas was wonderful this year (thank the LORD!). My parents came over on Christmas morning and had breakfast with us like all Christmases before (except 2008 of course!), and looked at all the toys and games Santa dumped down our chimney! We all realized how normal Christmas felt and appreciated the entire day even more. I couldn't help thinking back to last year and how horrible the holidays were for all of us . . . especially my sweet parents. Being in the hospital during Christmas was simply SAD! I can remember tears rolling down my cheeks Christmas Eve while walking into the lonely, peaceful, heavily decorated entryway at the hospital. I tried to gather myself and my emotions together and walk into my Daddy's room without looking like I had just had a meltdown, but I knew they could see it written all over my bulging, watery eyes and cherry red nose. I left that night crying as I numbly walked through the lobby and continued sobbing the entire way home. Thankfully that time is behind us and Christmas 2009 was a wonderful celebration of family togetherness and blessing! We were truly thankful and very blessed to all be here!

My children are growing so quickly! Kamden is enjoying her K-5 class and is learning so much this year! She is discovering so many new things and thinking in such a mature "little mommie" way! The way she views the world (and those in it) and the things that come out of her mouth is comic relief for the entire family. Cole is in sixth grade at Wren Middle and is putting forth so much effort. It makes my heart feel good to see how much he cares about learning. He has been willing to stay after school to do extra work in math and it is really paying off. Cole can't help but sing songs from the 80's with the radio and it makes me smile! Max is a ninth grader and is doing the Virtual Charter School from the computer at home. He seems quite satisfied with his current situation as compared to the high school setting. He is able to take Spanish and a couple of other classes that were not offered at Wren High for ninth graders, so that will give him a head start! I will have to admit that it has all been an adjustment for me! Actually, I have felt a lot closer to Max and we talk quite a bit more. This is a wonderful age to bond more with a growing teenager and I feel lucky to have this time with him! Anyway, life has been good for the Davenports and we are working together to continue on our path.

Now that we have officially entered a new year, I figured this was as good a time as any to get back into the swing of blogging. My best friend, Angel, is getting ready to venture to China in a few short weeks to adopt a special little boy named Andrew. We are all very excited and look forward to watching and reading all about it through the magic of the Internet! I will be heavy into the blog world because of this adoption, and need to catch up with my own blogging anyway. So here goes the Funny Farm again . . . up and running! Oh, and yes . . . I still have my chickens and sing in the barnyard everyday! Haven't quite taught those birds how to clap yet, but they lay blue eggs, so I don't complain!

2009-06-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

Well this past week has been a very eventful one for my family! Max is officially finished with middle school and Cole is finished with elementary school. Yep, they graduated 8th and 5th grade with wonderful grades, I might add. I am so very proud of both of my boys. They are going to have such an exciting school year ahead of them in the fall.
To add to those fabulous events, my Daddy began his (experimental) hyperbaric treatments on Tuesday and completed a four day week. I hope and pray that these treatments will be the magic miracle that he is needing. At first Dr. Fowler said that he didn't think that Daddy would be a candidate, but after evaluations from around eight other doctors they arrived at the fact that he would be a perfect candidate. Greenville Memorial has never had an open chest wound patient go through the hyperbaric treatment, so Daddy will be their "guinea pig". He has been a bit scared over the possible negative side effects, but I have been urging him to take the plunge and go for it. Honestly, what does he have to loose? We have to do something that is going to progress his healing at lightening speed because his wound was not improving and he just couldn't live in the condition he was "treading water" in .
One of the scary parts of all of this for me is that this is my bright "googling" idea. Therefore, if it works - yeah me! If it doesn't work, or worse causes a problem - booo me in the worst way! I have accepted these possibilities, because I want my Daddy well and home. So far, he has been aggravated by the 2 hour chamber stay and can't seem to sleep while trapped. What! You can hang my Daddy on a hook and he can saw some logs! He feels really cold and can't get his feet warm after the treatments, but other than that he seems fine.
On Friday the wound nurse Mary Ann, Dr. Fowler and a few other ogling guests observed his vac changing and measured his progress and praise the LORD there was progress. His body is healing from the inside out and there is "granulation" (that's when the tissue starts rebuilding itself to fill in the gap) throughout his chest cavity. The progress seems to be advancing at an unusually rapid rate - thanks to the hyperbaric chamber I say! The 100 percent oxygen level causes the body to heal much more quickly - that's the plan. Daddy has the weekend off from the treatments and is excited about his "freedom". He will go through the next week starting on Monday and after his tenth treatment they will do an official observation and calculate his progress. Then they will decide if he should continue with treatments.
Let's just hope and pray that this is the final thing that will actually encourage his healing at an amazing rate of speed. I believe it will work with all of my heart. I keep telling Daddy to claim it! This is going to work because we have FAITH! I will be adding pics soon!

2009-05-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Daddy hasn't had a very productive few days. He has once again spiked a fever and feels lousy! Sunday he also had a fever with no reason. They truly are clueless. The fluid coming from his chest into the wound vac turned that brown color again on Sunday and Dr. Fowler decided to remove the wound vac and go back to wet to dry packing in his chest cavity. Thankfully his recent chest x-ray looked great. Lord, I have just been so frustrated and disappointed by the lack of progress.

This morning I sat at the computer and started doing a little investigation myself on open sternal wound infection and found that there is a therapy using a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber. I thought it sounded like a real possibility and called Mother to tell her what I found. When Dr. Fowler came by to see Daddy she mentioned the treatment. He said he didn't think Daddy would be a candidate for that type of therapy (didn't really give a reason why), but would have the doctor who is over the Hyperbaric Chamber (who is also at Greenville Memorial) to come by and talk to them. So far, they haven't heard from him, but I remain hopeful. We have got to find some kind of different approach, or we are going to watch my Daddy slowly fall apart - further. I just can't stand playing this waiting game any longer. I feel so, so, so sorry for him and for my Mother too. She is at her wits end. I don't know how she has kept herself going! I know she would do anything to make all of this go away!

Yesterday Kamden and I went by to visit and take all of their clean clothes to them and they were so happy. We still couldn't get Kamden to give him a kissy on the cheek, but she did hug him. I think seeing his "big sore" on his belly a while back has just about done her in on getting too close to him. We stayed long enough for Kamden to curl up on his bed and take a long nap. They shared their supper with me, which sounds crazy, but they really had plenty thanks to the huge sandwich that Mother had saved from the Memorial Day celebration at Roger C. Peace. I sure did enjoy spending some time with them and not being rushed out the door to pick kids up from school.

We remain hopeful and Daddy is fighting hard!

2009-05-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

My Mother and Daddy at the beach summer 2006

I am so thankful to have my Daddy and that he is willing to fight the battle of his life. Today was just not a good day at all for him, and I have to add for me either. I watched the wound nurse Mary Ann unpack his chest dressings and reattach the wound vac for the first time since he has become wide open again. I missed six entire days of seeing Daddy because Kamden had been running a fever of 103.3 and I couldn't visit until she was well and able to go back to school for her last week of K-4. It was a horrible sight to behold and I am baffled by the reasons he has had such an impossible time healing. All of the pain from having is stomach muscle transplanted to his chest opening was a waist of time! It is more than half undone and the rest seems to be on it's way to separating also. I hate to sound so negative, but Lord knows this is just the truth. Daddy looks so helpless and it has just ripped my heart out. I was in shock at the deterioration of his chest. How much more could he stand? Mary Ann was addled by the way his chest looked. I asked her if it looked like it was healing any and she said, "Not at this time." Not at all what I wanted to hear by a long shot. What do we do from here? I honestly don't know what other options there are!

Well, they moved my parents to Roger C. Peace Sub-Acute (they needed the hospital bed for "really" sick people - you know!) and this is where they will continue their 5 week stay to receive the complete round of antibiotics while hooked up to the wound vac. They have been in this room (2807) two times before this, so they are quite at home. All of the nurses and physical therapist love Daddy and feel so sorry for them both. Dr. Fowler agreed that Daddy could do some exercises to get his strength up a little. Bless his heart, he can't lie down on the bed nor get up without a lot of help. They plan to get him at least to the point of doing this. I honestly don't know how on earth he feels like doing anything, but there is one thing for certain about my Daddy HE IS A FIGHTER and he loves all of us dearly!!!

2009-05-14T10:02:00.001-07:00

Ever get the feeling that you are so blessed and you don't take the time to appreciate the big and the little things in life? Ever get to thinking about how every choice has a lasting effect on your world and the world of your loved ones? Ever think that you are right were you are supposed to be?

OK, I am getting into deep territory, I know, but I am feeling guilty about complaining so often. I am feeling guilty about not appreciating the water that has flowed so effortlessly under my bridge and that I never took the moment it would have taken to appreciate and drink it up.

I looked at old cell phone pictures the other day and thought to myself - "Wow this was before we had a clue what was ahead with my Daddy. We truly didn't have a care in the world - but goodness knows we thought we did!" I am so glad we don't know the future. Daddy is right where he is supposed to be because of choices made that we can't change.

He is slowly improving, but thankfully he is improving. He is going to have to go back to Roger C. Peace Sub. Acute within the next few days to continue his four to six week round of antibiotics and that is OK. It really is! It is a step in the right direction! He is a strong man with the tenacity of a stubborn mule. Yes, this is a bump in the road of our lives, but this will NOT take the blue out of the sky or the joy out of our hearts.

We are beyond blessed and I am a thankful woman all the way down to every single dirty sock!

2009-05-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

We hope eight is enough! That's what my Daddy keeps saying about the 8th surgery that was preformed on his chest this morning. Who would have ever dreamed? The repair that was made last Tuesday just didn't quite do the trick! Last Friday Daddy started draining into his JP drain a fluid that looked a lot like coffee with cream in it. It looked just like my iced coffee from McDonald's - yuck! That is not a good, healthy color by any means. The infectious disease doctors cultured the drainage and it came back as "Gram Positive Rods". They said it was not staph, but didn't know what it was at this point. Dr. Fowler said it looked good when he went back in to put a wound vac on Daddy's chest this morning. He did a little cleanup of the damaged tissue and in no time Daddy was back in the room complete with a new wound vac. I am convinced and so is the good doctor that this is the best thing for Daddy. Heck it finally worked on his thigh, so our guess is that it will eventually work on his chest. Actually there aren't a lot of other choices left for us to choose from! I sure do wish he had put the wound vac on last week. I honestly don't think surgery would have happened today. Hind sight is always 20/20! Right?
Daddy has had a wonderful attitude about the "one more surgery" thing, especially since he also started bubbling air out of two new holes that developed on the skin graphed area on Saturday. This is not a good thing either! His nurse flipped out completely. She had never seen such a sight! That was enough to scare the life out of my parents. They have just been through so much!
When I left him this afternoon to pick up the kids, the Infectious Disease Nurse Practitioner had just walked in to announce some not so wonderful news. It seems as if they have decided that Daddy needs to continue on his entire six week round of IV antibiotics again - which also means that time must be spent in the hospital and not at home! He is only on day four now. How could such a whopping big announcement be made by the NP? Where was Dr. Shrank (the grand pooh pahh Infectious Disease Doctor)? Oh, yeah he is out for the rest of the week! ARGH!!! She asked if Daddy wanted her to have the IV team come in and put in a pic line so he wouldn't blow his veins. He said he would wait to talk to a real doctor! I bet she hates hearing that from patients, but what does she expect?
Daddy had a massive appetite when they rolled him in from surgery. The nurse asked him if he was hurting and he said that he was. When she asked him where he was hurting he replied, "In my stomach! I am starving to death and want a cheeseburger with french fries!" And that is just what he got and gobbled up every bite! He has always loved to eat and has said before this entire nightmare began, "If I am not eatin' I'm a dyin'!" Honestly this is the best I have seen him eat in a long time! I hope that is a sign of good things, strength, and healing to come! I love him so much and I want him back! Back in our world outside the walls of the hospital. Back in the sunshine of these glorious May days. Back at the dinner table saying, "I am popping fresh!" Back in the yard showing us all of his "pet" hummingbirds. He doesn't have to be superman, just Pappy.

2009-05-07T22:10:00.001-07:00

I just came home from a most wonderful surprise birthday party planned by my amazing husband and best friend Angel. I TOTALLY had no clue and couldn't quit crying. I can't believe no one gave the surprise away - including my oldest son Max who knew all about it. I have never had a surprise party and really didn't know they existed in my little world. I was completely blindsided in a most wonderful way.
Craig had gotten a little room at the Oriental House in Greenville and had a buffet style table set up with loads of food for our family and couple of my dearest friends. Angel had done all of the decorating and helped Craig with the many details without breathing a word of the plans to me (what kind of friend would do that anyway?). I thought we were just running a little late to meet Angel and her family for dinner and a little Frankie's Fun Park, so I thought no big deal. She knows how we are! In fact, I actually had a good reason because Kamden had broken out into a horrible rash and we had been at the doctor's office and pharmacy for the afternoon. I really should have known something was up when Craig was going 90 on Highway 85, but it just didn't click. I really didn't suspect a thing - even when Cole screamed out "Is Amy going to be here (that's Craig's cousin) because I see her car!" I scoffed him off without looking up from my pocketbook with a quick, "No! Lord, someone must just have a car like theirs." I actually walked through the restaurant door thinking to myself that I hadn't thought to make or purchase a cake for my sweet son Cole (who was my 29th birthday gift from God), so you can imagine my shock when everyone screamed surprise (I think that's what they said) with candles flaming on two cakes. To be honest I think I sort of blacked out in sheer shock for a few seconds, but I do know that I was tearing up like a baby. I couldn't hold back the tears. Let me tell you, it does wonders for a girl's day old makeup job to flood your face. I am sure I looked like a blubbering idiot and the pictures Angel took will show it all. I haven't had a birthday party since I was 10 (Leigh-Leigh was at that one 30 years ago too).

I just never suspected a thing. It was perfect except for the fact that my parents weren't able to be there because Daddy is still hospitalized due to his heart developing Atrial Flutter. I guess that gave me even more reason to have my nerves torn up. I would fan my face for a little while and wipe under the last specks of lower lash mascara, and kind of get straightened out and boom someone would mention my parents or I would think of them and there the tears would go again. Don't get me wrong, I was happy and the tears were mostly tears of joy, but there were moments I felt so guilty looking around the room and not seeing my parents there amongst the aunts, uncles, in-laws, Leigh's family and Angel's. I know their hearts were breaking too. I just know it! They deserved to enjoy all the good food, see my shocked eyeballs bugging out of my head like a squished frog, enjoy the atmosphere of people who loved and cared for their little offspring, see the look on grandson Cole's face who was right there in "Clue-less-ville" with me, watch us blow out ALL of the candles . . . you know feel it, see it, taste it all. They were supposed to be there too, spit nails! Thankfully, Daddy has actually improved a lot in the last 24 hours, but he is still being monitored closely.
I still can't quite get over the fact that I was punked in the birthday fashion. They all just think they are a bunch of sneaky sneaks. Heck, I am down right convinced they could pull off just about anything after tonight. I am so thankful from the bottom of my heart for all of the hard work and planning it took to make me look like a totally natural blond bimbo! Everything was perfect, almost. I received lots of hugs, kisses, yummy food, and gifts and so did my sweet Cole! Bless his heart, he sobbed into my shoulder once everyone had left and said, "I can't believe everyone went to all of this trouble for us!" Isn't he just the sweetest thing? Yeah, I cried over that too! Tearing up now as I type this! What is wrong with me! Is this going to be the weepy decade? Better not be, because I just know there are many wonderful things ahead in my next ten years. I hope they will be some of the best years of my life!
Keep praying for my Daddy and be looking for me to add some pictures of the big event soon. Notice how I didn't use any BLACK in this post! HeeeHeee! I am not over the hill, I am just coasting on a slightly downward slope!

2009-05-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

Daddy was home for a whopping 30 days and is disappointingly now back in the hospital. The upper part of his chest (where the last surgery was preformed) has simply not healed properly. When he went to Dr. Fowler's office last Friday the good doctor told him that he was going to have to have more work done, but would only have to stay in the hospital for one day or two. You can't imagine how saddened the news of returning to the hospital made both of my parents. They had been doing so good and the days had flown by amongst loads of doctor visits.
Yesterday my sweet Daddy had his seventh surgery on his chest and we all hope the final. He did great and was quite the brave trooper waiting to finally go into surgery. Seems if they say your surgery is at 12:00, go ahead and plan on 2:30. Daddy was starving, but had a great attitude considering all that he has gone through. He finally returned to room 3324 at 6:00 pm. Betty and Bruce came to the hospital to sit with Mother and I in the not so comfortable waiting room, so that made the time go by a little faster. Daddy came out of surgery greeting all of his nurse buddies from the third floor with a big smile on his face and said that he really wasn't in pain at all. I hope that is a good sign that everything will be coming up roses from hereon out. I know the thoughts and prayers of loads of people have made a enormous difference.

2009-04-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

2009-04-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog! First of all my Daddy is still home, so that makes a record for him. He is just taking one day at a time and is on the slow path to recovery from all that he has gone through. Yesterday they went to see Dr. Fowler at his office and he threatened to send Daddy back to the hospital for observation because he has been bleeding from his chest. Daddy would hear nothing of it, so they will be going back to let the nurse look at him on Thursday and then Dr. Fowler will see him again on Friday. He is still very weak and can't even sit up in bed without help. It just breaks my heart to see him so helpless still. I think we all must have thought as soon as he got home he would be instantly better, but that is not the case at all. He is taking tiny baby steps everyday to get stronger. His body was simply put through too much. I have faith that my strong Daddy will build his strength back, it is just going to take lots of time and patience!

Well Easter came and went and I didn't even post a single note or picture of my wonderful family! We all had a wonderful day full of egg hunts, food and family! The day was glorious and I don't think we have ever had a prettier Easter! My kids hated dressing up, if you could call it that, but I think they looked so sweet. Those Easter duds didn't last long as they changed quickly into their "play clothes" so they could enjoy themselves in comfort! I don't blame them a bit!

2009-04-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please!!!!!!! My Daddy is finally HOME!!!!!!!

Friday, April 3 (just one day shy of making this hospital journey five months long) my parents got the discharge papers to escape Greenville Memorial Hospital! With the help of some wonderful nurses and doctors they were really and truly (and we hope for good) able to go home! It was such a sunny and beautiful day! We couldn't have asked for better spring weather. The grass was bright and green and all of the trees were blooming. It was a perfect day. The trip home was exhausting and took all the energy they had. By the time I got to their house, after stopping to get prescriptions filled and gathering some groceries, I found them pooped and in a daze.

Not long after arriving I was unpacking their van and took their dirty clothes bag to the laundry room and found a lovely surprise. The room was flooded from a leak behind the washing machine. On an average normal day this would send my poor mother into a tail spin. I hated to tell them of the mess I found. Luckily my uncle Bruce came over and made the repair and Craig brought over a floor drying machine (large fan). We had everything all dried up and I spent the night with them. Sadly the wood floor in their hall way is all buckled and bowed. Don't know what they are going to do with insurance to get it all repaired, but they will have to do something.

The main thing on the agenda is getting my Daddy well and strong. The other stuff will just have to work itself out in time. On Sunday Max and I cleaned out their flower beds and planted some flowers for them to enjoy. Daddy walked outside to watch us and direct our weed pulling and got sunburned from the short visit outdoors. The antibiotics he is taking make his skin very sensitive. Lesson learned. I think going outside spent all of his energy in a major way. Monday was spent in the bed. Mother said he didn't even have the energy to get out of bed at all.

Today I met them at Dr. Fowler's office to get a good look at his wound changings and to hear what the doctor had to say. Amazingly things are looking great and healing wonderfully! Thankfully the extra "little" surgery Daddy had on Tuesday worked and the skin has healed nicely. Lord, it really looked so much better! I was amazed!

2009-04-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Daddy's surgery went perfectly. He had to have another skin graft from his left leg and placed at the top of his chest where the black yucky stuff was removed. The doctor had to call from the operating room to ask permission to do this procedure since it wasn't something that Daddy signed for and agreed to prior to surgery. We had to agree with the doctor and give him the ok. What else could we do? You wouldn't have believed how good Daddy looked when he came back from surgery. Within 25 minutes of coming back to the room he was sitting up, eating a big bowl of chicken gumbo and a peanut butter sandwich. I was impressed. He was then able to stand and walk to the recliner in the room. He looked great! Last night was rough for him and the pain began to set in. He had to ask for a couple of pain pills . . . bless his heart.
We actually walked Daddy outside and sat in front of the hospital, at the flag pole and enjoyed a few minutes of sunshine today. My parents were like cats sunning themselves! I went to the McDonald's across the street and got them an ice cream sundae. It was a really nice afternoon, but Daddy was exhausted after his walk outside. We actually passed one of his nurses on our way out and she thought he was running away! I wish we could!
Doctor Fowler came in today and didn't even take the dressings off of Daddy's chest. He commented on how well Daddy looked and said that he might get to go home of Friday or Saturday. Yahoooooo! Daddy's leg wound has reduced in "tunneling" size and in lymph fluid output. That is soooooo wonderful. In fact the wound nurse, Mary Ann, said that it was looking so well that he might get to loose the wound vac on Friday when she changes the dressings. That would be fabulous and then some! It is such a big bunch of mess (and quite an expense) to get a rental wound vac and a miracle to have a proper home health care nurse who is really schooled in how to take care of such a condition. Everything is coming together and we feel so blessed and fortunate. Daddy is scared to get too excited. He thinks they will look at his chest on Friday and decide if he needs another week in the hospital for observation. That would totally stink! I am choosing to think positive and decided to pack up some of their stuff today and put it in their van. That will make going home easier on my parents who have enough to worry about. Everything is riding on Friday, so keep your fingers crossed and say a big prayer!

2009-03-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is going to be a big day! My Daddy will undergo his sixth surgery on his chest at 10 am - so everyone say a prayer! GASP! I know, I can't believe it either! The muscle they transferred from his belly to his open chest wound started hemorrhaging the night he had surgery on March 16, and Doctor Fowler had to put a few stitches in some important spots near the top to stop the bleeding. It worked, but now Daddy has a blood clot formed on this upper area and looks like there could be some gangrene going on too. It really looks bad and has quickly progressed in the wrong direction since I saw it on Friday. It is simply black, much like frost bite, with a guey tar-like texture working its way about one third of the length of the muscle. I was so disappointed at how it looked and so was the nurse who hadn't seen it in a week. He had hopes of going home at the end of this week, but I don't see how that could happen now. Doctor Fowler seemed fairly nonchalant about the surgery and said he would buff off that bad looking layer and touch up a few spots on his belly (which for the record are black and horrible looking also). He said it would be a short surgery and that Daddy would come back to his room and not to CCU unless something unexpected happened.
Just keep my Daddy in your thoughts and prayers, especially while this surgery is going on. He is being very brave and facing this with the certainty and confidence of a warrior. Lord, we are so thankful for how far he has come and trust that this will be the final battle!
Happy 40 birthday (also tomorrow) to my sweet, loving husband (CRAIG) of 17 wonderful years. Aren't you lucky that I have so much going on with Daddy that I can't give you a surprise party complete with strippers! NO I WOULD NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS DO THAT - but it felt funny to type it. The next forty years will be the best years of our life. We will finish raising these crazy kids, find all kinds of fun things to get into and probably find a few grandchildren tugging at our jeans (scarey thought). Ok. . . Craig will find the crazy things to get into because that is his thing, hobby and passion . . . and I will enjoy being along for the ride! No one is allowed to have surgery on their chest . . ever! DEAL? I sure do love my birthday "boy"! Maybe at the ripe old age of 40 you can no longer be called a boy, but rather a MAN! Congratulations, you have finally obtained the appropriate age to go along with all of those distinguished gray hairs! HEE! HEEE! He will be dwelling in another decade of age for a few weeks, then I will join him.

2009-03-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Daddy is doing better, eating solid foods and to top all that off has a room with a window! Life is good and will even be better when he gets to go home! He is still in a lot of pain and told me today that his leg where they harvested his skin for the graft is hurting the most. I think that is an improvement since his tummy looks so bad! I asked him what he wanted for his birthday on the 26th and of course he said to go home. Since that is not in my hands, he will settle for some sunflower seeds to feed his birds and some bulb booster for his bulbs that bloomed in his yard without him getting to enjoy them this time around. Next year they will be better than ever I am sure. This time next year I hope and pray that all of this is just a bad memory and that he is a walking testimony to his strength and faith!

2009-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Daddy is in a regular room (closet) and is doing a tiny bit better. The move from CCU to the window-less, imaginary room was rough for him yesterday evening. I left around 2:00 to be with the kids, see Cole play the piano in the talent show at school, watch Cole play his very first flag football game and sleep at home in my comfy bed after a wild night in the CCU waiting room with at least 25 bikers the night before. I wish I had been there to help them out with the move. Mother said the nurses tossed him onto the bed and he writhed in pain when they first arrived. I really don't think that would have happened if I had been there! That kind of stuff burns me up! The nurses they ended their stay in the CCU were much better than the ones they started with (cell phone chick & disappearing act) and I wish he was still there. At least he had some sun light and a very comfortable room. That is so, so important to him and Dr. Fowler just doesn't understand. We had requested (quite specifically I might add) that Daddy needed a room with sun light because it cheers him up and will make the healing easier and maybe even quicker (who knows?). Dr. Fowler doesn't want to be bothered by his "needs" obviously and said, "I don't have anything to do with what room you are in." Please! Doctors do have some pull. Mother is on a war path, so we will see if something can be done. Daddy is so tired and says he just needs his rest. Mother said she feels like she is going to explode and I think she just might from sheer exhaustion. I wish I could make all of this get better! My hands are tied! I am now at home with Max who is running 102 fever and feels like crud! I think we had about four days of everyone being well! I am going to go to the hospital tonight after everyone gets settled down and take Mother some of her stuff from the car and some clean clothes. She is having to live in such limbo. I had to put all of their "unnecessary" things in the car instead of dragging them around. Now that they are in a tiny (hopefully temporary) room they don't want to crowd it and have to move more stuff when and if they move. Sounds like we care more about the room than my Daddy (NOT), but everything works together. We have got to get things more comfortable, settled down, and drama free for them to be happy and for Daddy to get well. He is as disgusted as he has ever been over his condition and the room. He is in a terrific amount of pain and is so ill that his body is not cooperating. He has told me he loves me and how sorry he is for being such trouble over and over again. Bless his sweet heart! He really wants to eat "real" food again after so much liquid. Mother said he had watered down grits and a meal replacement shake this morning and he liked it. He needs loads of protein to help heal his wounds, so hopefully tomorrow he will move up to real solids. One of the doctors in CCU prescribed that he chew gum for one hour, three times a day to help with his digestion. No one has ever heard of such, but we will try anything at this point. Daddy likes the gum, but says after an hour his jaws are tired. Gotta send a shout out to every one who has helped us out with visits and food. Thanks to Angel for the Capris dinner Wednesday night. LOVE that stuff and you too! It was wonderful actually getting to sit and talk without kids around! Thanks to Bruce for being such a wonderful friend to my Daddy and for feeding my Mother some good ol' corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day. Thanks to Aunt Betty for trading off nights in the CCU waiting room with me. You are such a good sister & aunt! We didn't want Mother to stay there in that strange (sometimes crazy) place alone. Thanks to Mickey and Dee for always being there to support my parents. Y'all have been beyond wonderful throughout this entire, lengthy event and we love you both so much! Leigh-Leigh has been great to show up just when we need her the most. It is wonderful to have a nurse's perspective on what is going on with Daddy's situation. Her son was burned a month ago and had surgery at the Agusta Burn Center, but she has continued to check in on Daddy and Mother and been a WONDERFUL friend! Mike and Jim from our church have been great to visit my parents and have been very concerned about my Daddy. Bob from Angel's church has made fast friends with both my Daddy and Mother and makes them laugh. They are holding his umbrella for ransom so he will come visit again. I know there are people who look at this blog from all over and keep my Daddy in their prayers, and I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart!

2009-03-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

Super quick update: Daddy is in CCU (Critical Care Unit) and not doing so well. I stayed last night with Mother in the waiting area. At 2:30 am Daddy started bleeding from his chest (belly muscle transplant - don't really know what to call it!). Dr. Fowler had to be called in from home to patch him up. Talk about knee jerking scarey (ugly) stuff! Mother couldn't take seeing the events unfold at all! I thought she was going to faint and I thought I was going to join her! The doctor took the wound vac from his chest and stitched a couple of random spots and it appears to have slowed the bleeding. Now he is draining all over the place! Daddy has had a down right bad day. He has been sick to his stomach, sweating, really (REALLY out of his mind) uncomfortable and is having very little urine output (this freaks us out!). No one seems to really care about him here! He has been in incredible pain and the nurses in this area leave much to be desired. The night nurse can't stay off her cell phone and the day nurse is never around! These nurses are assigned only TWO patients per shift - that's an easy job - or at least how they do it! You would think they would be on top of things, but it is so not the case. This is the worse area we have been in out of the five surgeries in over four in a half months. I think we are all going to lock horns before it is all over! I came home tonight to get a few things done and sleep. I can't sleep for worrying about my sweet Daddy and sleep deprived Mother. Aunt Betty stayed with Mother tonight and I plan to go to the hospital after the kids go to school tomorrow. Lord I hope this next day is good! Daddy hasn't been able to keep anything down and all he has had is liquid! He said that this is by far his worst pain ever. Bless his poor, little, abused heart and body!

2009-03-16T06:31:00.001-07:00

Daddy is having surgery today at 1:00 pm - big, BIG surprise for it to be so soon. I thought it would be Wednesday or at least a few days down the road so Daddy could get over this cough a bit more. An anesthesiologist strolled into 2807 and shared with them that everything was happening on Monday. After church and choir practice I rushed to the hospital to help Mother get things packed up in her car because they don't know where Daddy will be after surgery. He could be in a regular hospital room, or he could be in CVICU. It is all according to how he does.
I have to admit that I had a couple of crying/meltdown moments yesterday and I simply couldn't help myself. Mother's best friend Jane was there and witnessed me losing it. Mother told me that I couldn't do that kind of stuff around Daddy, but I truly didn't want to do it - it just happened. I tried stuffing toilet paper in my eyeballs and nose and when that didn't work, I just let the flood gates down. Daddy keeps reassuring me that everything will be just fine (he even promised me with a hand shake and a hug). He thinks if they get going with the surgery then that means that he will get to go home quicker. Well I worry more about him simply making it through surgery, but I don't want him to know that. He is over such a barrel right now. Something has to be done. Every time he coughs a sound like a squeeze toy whistles from his chest. Mother said that the chest wound had grown by an inch and a half since Wednesday and was continuing to grow with every cough. I just don't understand how cutting on him more and patching him with other body parts is going to suddenly fix everything.
There is a sweet lady across the hall that is going through a very similar thing with her chest, but her surgery is optional. Her wound is only about the size of a golf ball, and Daddy's is the size of a grapefruit. She could continue with her wet to dry dressings up to a year and not have surgery. Daddy doesn't have a choice at all.
Mother just called to confirm that Dr. Fowler called to say that all was a go. He apologized for things moving so fast, but it will be better for him to get on the right path. I hope and pray that he is right. Sometimes you just don't know what to think! Daddy appreciates all the thoughts and prayers from everyone. Keep thinking about him! This has to work!

2009-03-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

WE HAVE HAPPY NEWS - THREE NEW BABY GOATS, A NEW PUPPY, AND COLE'S TEAM GOT RUNNERS UP IN A TOURNAMENT!
The three new goats were born on 2-22-09 and are just precious. The two girls (Snicker Doodle & Chocolate Chip) are my babies as the mother goat just wants to feed and care for the boy (Nutter Butter). Oh what joy to bottle feed a couple of hungry, growing goats in the snow and rain, but Lord they are the cutest baby goats ever and Kamden is completely smitten! We can only imagine that Tank cleaned off the girls after they were born, while the mother goat (Cookie Dough) cleaned the boy - hence only taking to him! Tank loves the babies and keeps a close watch over them. The night they were born we could hear coyotes all around in the woods drawn by the very loud cries of the new born kids. Tank was in full defense as guardian dogs are supposed to do. They are growing and Kamden enjoys toting them around like rag dolls. It has been a joy to have new life in the barnyard!
Now to the puppy, Miss Lily! She is all Craig's doings and is a sweet, fast growing puppy. He has been worried that Tank, who will be eight in May, is getting old and slowing down. Time for a replacement, or at least a back up. Lily is a pretty girl and is quite the ball of energy. Tank is not amused by her jumping and playing and acts like an old man!

Cole's baseball team "The Southern Steal" played in their first tournament this year last weekend and did great. They were a little rusty, but still managed to get runners up and received trophies. He hurt his knee and didn't feel great on Saturday, but had a much better day on Sunday, but they lost their last game to the "Diamond Dogs". The boys were disappointed, but shouldn't have been because they did great!
So nice to have some good news for a change! This kind of stuff keeps the kids happy and life a lot more bearable! We are blessed by healthy children and a yard full of critters! What a life!

2009-03-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 13, 2009

My sweet parents!

Not so great news to share about my Daddy :-( ! He has been looking forward to his "release date" from Roger C. Peace on March 18, which is only a few days away and low and behold the doctor came in yesterday afternoon while the wound nurse was changing Daddy's wound vac dressings and announced that Daddy would indeed have to have another (#5 for those of you counting) surgery on his chest early next week. What devastating news for my parents. Mother said tears just jumped out of her eyes and she silently soaked her shirt down (bless her heart). Dr. Fowler said that Daddy had ruined all of the progress and healing his open chest wound had made by coughing so much in the past two weeks. He said that Daddy's rib bones were dry, brittle and quite sharp and every time he coughed he shredded his own tissue and the foam used for the dressings. They are going to have to snip the ribs back, pull muscle from his stomach (about a 8 to 9 inch incision) and graft skin from his (good) left leg and try to repair his chest that way. Sounds so painful and breaks my heart.
Daddy called to tell me at about all of this at 2:15 pm today and totally ruined my day (couldn't get myself together!). I couldn't hold back my tears and wept to him. He told me that I had to put my chin up and be strong! My strong is about all used up, but I told him I would be strong for him. I just hurt for him. His disappointment was very obvious! We really have no other choice but to try one more thing.
The wound nurse (Mary Ann - who is wonderful) told Mother that she needed to be thankful that there is still something that could be done. She said,"The time to get upset is when they say there is nothing else they can do." Okay - I guess we will have to reassure ourselves that way, but it just doesn't feel a bit better to me. I don't understand why things keep going better, bad, and then worse - over and over again! We really need a miracle! We want so badly for this to be the perfect surgery to repair all of Daddy's chest needs. Please, Lord!
He still continues to drain loads of lymph fluid in the wound vac from his upper thigh, but Dr. Fowler said they aren't going to touch the thigh this time around. They are concentrating on the most important area first. They are going to stop all antibiotics about two days before surgery so they can properly culture Daddy's wound to make sure that all the antibiotics have wiped out the infection. If all goes as planned we are looking at two weeks post surgery to go home. If infection is still there, they will be facing another six weeks of IV antibiotics. ARGH!!!!!
Daddy still looks good, and puts on his happy face when I visit. Maybe I make him laugh because I look like pack mule when I carry all their laundry, snacks and such in one load from my car. He is getting around fairly well, considering he is rolling an IV pole around with two wound vacs attached. Everyone at the facility they are in is good to them. Mother has had a time getting the room to a comfortable temp. Before they "repaired" the unit in their room she was burning up and fanning constantly. Now that they "repaired" it she and Daddy are cold, then hot, then cold.......! No happy medium! Plus on Thursday they awoke to find the floor flooded from the cruddy unit having a leak, so all of Mother's "paper work", mail, bills, journals, etc were soaked! Yep, she had a melt down! Daddy just rolls with the flow and continues to be happy to have his partner by his side. This officially is their longest stay in the hospital at one time. They have been hospitalized from Jan. 16 until they get to go home - and who knows when that will be. It has been a four and a half month battle in total so far with only 16 days being spent at home. What a lengthy hospital journey and who would have ever dreamed? I just hope and pray that this will be their last battle and after this surgery it will be smooth sailing until they arrive at their "home destination". Keep paying for them y'all!

2009-02-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

This update is so very overdue! My Daddy is doing better, thank the good Lord! He has now moved over to Roger C. Peace Sub-Acute again as of Feb. 20 and is very happy seeing all of his old nurse buddies and rehab friends! It has been like "Old Home Week" Mother said. He has had a few set backs since his last surgery, but is doing well. He had to have a wound vac attached to his lower leg because it just wasn't healing (Feb. 13). It has done so well since then and healed so quickly that the wound vac was removed on Feb. 25 to much joy and celebration! Anything to show progress in Daddy's book is fabulous! He went through a procedure to open his upper thigh (again) and they attached the wound vac to it also on Feb. 18. The JP drain just wasn't doing the trick and his lymph fluid was still draining at such a rate that they had to go for the vac. Now Daddy has two attachments to the wound vac machine - his chest and his thigh. He is still receiving his IV antibiotics and other meds in a happy environment where he is healing nicely! I still liked the suite they had over in the regular hospital better, but Daddy is happy and comfortable so that's what matters most. Mother is still by his side as expected! I gave Daddy a haircut yesterday and he said that it made him feel so much better! Funny how little things mean so much when you have lost so much of your day to day "freedoms" and had to adjust.
I really can't say that I have adjusted as well as they appear to have, because sometimes I just boo hoo all by myself. My heart breaks for them! They are missing out on so much of the fun they enjoyed! I am just being selfish (I know), but I miss the way things used to be! I miss my parents' adventurous side, my Daddy's barnyard, common sense, helpfulness, my Kamden's MeeMee times spent cuddling and spending the night on her blow-up bed (she cries for her MeeMee all the time), Cole's fun times catching lizards and throwing the football with his fun-loving Pappy and Max's love of playing board games with his MeeMee and Pappy (the original gamesters!). I miss them talking about the birds outside of their kitchen window, instead of wound dressings and nurses. I miss going for a visit and ending up at a state park with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I am so fortunate, blessed and happy to have them, and look FORWARD to getting back to the way things used to be before November 4, 2008 when our lives changed. I know Daddy will never be the Hercules he used to be, but I don't care, I just want him happy and healthy. Oh no, tears! Gotta get my goofy self together and stop reflecting! Focus on the positive chick!
Drum roll . . . their estimated going home (discharge) date is set for March 18. We all really want that date to come quickly and for their stay at home to be a long, healthy one filled with mountain views, sunsets and birdwatching, oh yeah . . . and filled with their "younguns" too (all five of us!).

2009-02-08T20:11:00.001-08:00

My Dear Daddy made it through his surgery without a hitch! He is recovering nicely in his super large room at Memorial Hospital. He now has a wound vac on his chest. Pretty gnarly sight, but it is doing its job. The doctor told us after surgery that Daddy's three plates that were put in his sternum on Dec. 19th were completely shifted over to one side when he opened him up. Also his sternum was no longer together and there was about a half inch gap. Fortunately there was not an abscess, or large puss pocket (YUCK - totally), but just fluid. They are culturing it and will give us the results maybe on Monday. Who knows, sometimes you never find out until you dig a little. Daddy had asked the doctor for the plates because they were his at $3,000 each and he wanted to make a wind chime out of them when this was all over. LOL!!! Dr. Fowler said that he asked for them, but had to give them to pathology to examine and destroy. I think he thought that I planned on selling them on Ebay! NOT!!

The leg that drained (his upper right thigh) was opened again and he tried to find the leak in Daddy's lymph system, but we don't think he did. Daddy has a JP drain and it keeps filling up in the same fashion and amount as before the operation, so that part doesn't seem like a success. They may have to open it again and put a wound vac on it. We just don't know yet. All I keep saying is that they shouldn't have used his right leg like we told them from the beginning and all of this would have been avoided. I believe this with all of my heart and soul!

His lower right leg (inside calf) has now been opened and all of the infection (I hope) removed. It has been left as an open wound and will have to be dressed and packed daily. Not a pretty sight. This was a spot that was looking great until his Jan 1st surgery when they put the "boot" on his leg after surgery and it started draining yucky stuff and was downhill after that! Poor Daddy has had a time with that right leg! He has been in a lot of pain, but is off of his pain meds and fighting through it all. You know the rest of your body doesn't work right with pain meds flowing through it, so I think he is trying to get back some sort of normalcy!

My Mother (A/K/A MeeMee), as expected, has been right by his side the entire time. She has been a trouper and needs an award (a really big one like a cruise). She has been his protector, provider, complete caregiver, wife, friend, and the love of his life. I heard him whisper in her ear (after this last surgery) that she was the best thing that ever happened in his life and he loved her so much. Makes me tear up now to type it. I absolutely HATE that they have to go through all of this, but at least they have each other and that's a lot!

Well, I have spent the weekend banned from visiting because I had a bit of a fever with some aches and pains (nothing major) and the kids (all three) have got some sort of funk going on. Mother is a pit bull on germ carriers and I completely understand (glad she is!). I would die before I ever gave them a bug. I am feeling better, but my girl was running 100 degree fever earlier (after her Daddy/Daughter date to the circus). I will have to blog about that happier stuff later this week. Even Max and Cole have some sort of crud, cough, sore throat and what not!

I feel frustrated with so much, but in the same token blessed by so much and so many special people. How can I complain? Really! Mickey and Dee have been wonderful this entire time! He should have been my Daddy's brother! They claim it that way anyway! They have been there through it all and are such a comfort to have around. Bruce has been a best bud to my Daddy and he and Betty have brought food to the hospital to my Mother several times. Their visits always cheer them up. Random visits from my preacher and deacons have been a blessing. I have such a sweet church family. They probably think I have abandoned them, but I will be back! Other churches that are praying for Daddy have sent various visitors who have all prayed with my parents. Leigh has been a lifesaver - literally! She always perks my parents up with her humor and her love of good food - like French toast, "pooter" sandwiches and sweet tea! It thrills my Daddy to death to have his little sister Margret (Til) and her husband Jerry to visit. They have been good to bring snacks and such to the hospital when they can. Loads of people have been praying for Daddy and lots we don't even know. I even have a friend, thanks to my blog, that is all the way in Brazil and her family prays for Pappy Joe! Loads of my "old" friends who are on FaceBook are also asking about and praying for my Daddy. It is amazing how everyone comes together - all the way down to my parent's neighbors old and new. Even though Angel hasn't wanted to share her family's germs, so she hasn't been able to visit (thanks for keeping all them germs to yo-self!) has been a great support. Heck, she is the only willing soul (brave woman) who will keep all three of my Rug-Rats (at the same time too). She really loves my parents - along with the rest of the family! I just had to take a moment to say thank you to so many for so much. I love y'all!

2009-02-04T06:53:00.000-08:00

Today is the day that all wrongs will be made right - we hope and pray. Daddy is having surgery today from 1:00 until 5:00. This will be the fourth time! Dr. Fowler is going to open his chest and remove the three plates and all of the infection surrounding them. It seems that all of the antibiotics in the hospital can't heal him and they are going to have to break over and operate. He will be left with a hole in his chest and another wound vac. There may be other surgeries in the future to correct the damage and fill in the cavern in his chest. His sternum will not be held together by anything and therefore will not ever be stable again. He will always have movement in his chest now that the plates are being removed. The muscle flaps that support his chest are going to be undone to get to the plates, and they will hopefully be able to reattach them. I know Daddy's going to be in a lot of pain and I am so worried for him.
They are also going to open his thigh again and try to figure out where the leak in his lymph system is coming from. Hopefully that will be simple and they will be able to put another JP drain on it and all will be well. The lower calf has an infection called Pseudomonas (sp?) and they are going to remove all of the dead tissue. He is on loads of high powered antibiotics and will be for some time to come.
He told me how scared he was last night. I reminded him that he is loved and needed more than he will ever know and we will be here to help him heal. This is going to be like starting over again and it makes my heart ache for my Daddy and my Mother. We all can't believe that it has come down to doing this again. At least the doctor tried to be conservative and watch instead of cutting him open right from the get go. I am glad for that. We can't look back and say, "I wonder if they had tried the antibiotics one more week if he would have responded?" Now we know that this is unavoidable and quite necessary.
Please continue praying for my Daddy.

2009-02-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yep. . . my Daddy is still being held captive in Greenville Memorial Hospital! He hasn't had surgery, but the doctor is going to make a final decision today or tomorrow. His upper thigh is still first on the list, his lower leg has suddenly become infected and will need to be whittled on a bit and finally his chest is a maybe. Dr. Fowler took his stitches out of his chest on Saturday (after being in for a month) and said that he still wasn't pleased with the redness. He wants it not to just be faded, but not red at all. It just doesn't seem like he is going to be able to heal fast enough. I looked at his chest last night and couldn't hide my disappointment. It kills me because he is acting like he feels so good, he is eating well, and walking the halls to get some exercise - how could he be in need of such drastic surgery. We just have to believe that there is still time - and there really is!
Mother had a really nice "Tech" that told her that she could simply request a large "deluxe" suite on the same hall. It's on a first ask, first given basis! No one has ever told us that those special rooms were just there for the asking. I guess we all thought you had to be one of the hospital's board of directors to get the "holy cow" suite. Anyway, my parents are "moving on up" as soon as the guy that is in there now goes home. Mother was packed and ready to evacuate at a moments notice yesterday, but the other patient decided to stay one more day - heck, it must be really nice! Hopefully he will hit the road today! One thing is for sure; my parents are ready for a change. The view of anything besides the side of the opposite hospital wing would be enough to get excited about! Bless their hearts - come Wednesday they will have been in the hospital for three months with only 16 short days at home (spread out of course). You know in the back of my mind I am playing a game with myself - thinking that if they get this great room then he will miraculously heal and be sent home ASAP! That's how things work for us usually! Well at least before this lengthy hospital nightmare began!
I had a wonderful visit with my parents last night. We went walking after the Super Bowl was over and visited a few of the halls Daddy has been on. There are some really, really great nurses out there (and believe me a few rotten ones) and we wanted to just see if some of the ones that were so nice to Daddy and Mother were there. We walked until after 12:00 am, but found a few sweet ones that couldn't believe that Daddy was still there in his bathrobe. We even showed him the terrible, ugly, very bad waiting room Mother had to set up residence in twice while he was in CVICU! We told him all about how we declared the tiny, private cubby with squatter's rights and there was never a moment that we didn't have one of us guarding our area. I know we sound crazy! But we were not playing around, by George, that was our spot!
I hope to post soon about the doctor's big decision with regards to Daddy's chest. I believe He can pull out a miracle! I am considering putting some makeup on Daddy's chest to cover all of the redness! We love and care for him so much and hate, HATE, HATE! the thought of Daddy having to go through a fourth chest opening! The big kicker is that they will leave him open to heal from the inside out! UGGH! I am thankful for the progress Daddy's body has made and pray for what is best for him. Keep praying y'all!

2009-01-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing went as planned today and that's a good thing . . . I hope! Daddy's doctor (plastic surgeon Dr. Fowler) decided to hold off on everything. Big, BIG shocker for us all! He said he felt he was in "purgatory" with the decision, but felt we needed to wait until tomorrow morning to make a decision. Obviously, Daddy's chest looked a tad bit better (maybe our miracle!). He will not be able to eat or drink after midnight again tonight in case they decide to go ahead with one or both surgeries tomorrow morning. One more day to give him a chance to heal and fight!
Last night as I left them at the hospital, Daddy and Mother both had resigned to the fact that his chest was going to be opened again this morning and they had actually accepted it. I had NOT! Daddy's regular (general) doctor had scared him to death with the thought that this infection he has going on in his chest could move to his titanium knee replacements (from 2005 & 2006 I think) and destroy them. What?? No one has mentioned a possibility like that before! He told them that infection attacked anything artificial in the body and could move to his knees! That is the two new parts on Daddy's body that he has been the most proud of. He would walk everyday and go to physical therapy to show off during his recovery period (which was short!) and everyone was so very proud of his progress! He used to always be in so much pain and kind of hobbled when he walked before the surgeries, so the new knees were his prize possessions! To even give a second thought to something happening to those knees terrified both of them. What on earth would he do without use of his legs and his chest? We can't even go there!
So, everyone, please continue to pray for my Daddy. Looks like it is working. He has quite the battle ahead of him! I have been taking pictures everyday so we can track the progress, which appears to be slight. I will sit down and post a few tomorrow.
Lord, please help my sweet, strong Daddy! He keeps telling us all how much he loves us! Bless his heart!

2009-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

Once again . . . my sweet Daddy is back in the hospital. We are baffled by the constant trouble he has had from the "simple . . . I can fix you" (quote from Doctor Barry Davis) open heart surgery that occurred on November 12th. He had just stayed home for the longest time since this all began - a whopping 10 days (from Jan. 6th to Jan. 16). He woke up last Friday morning feeling different and told my mother “There’s a problem, Houston". All around the lower half of his 33 chest sutures was swollen and red. Mother calls it "angry looking". I call it down right ridiculous.
Poor Daddy went back to the plastic surgeon's office on Friday and they took one look at him and agreed that he needed to be back in the hospital for IV antibiotics (vancomycin?). His leg is healing together, but will not quit building up lymph fluid. Daddy has to literally help the nurses (when he can find one who is willing to help!) drain his leg from a small opening and it looks just like urine pouring out in a straight stream into a collection container. Last night he got out over 700 cc's. His leg is definitely going to have to be operated on tomorrow morning and opened back up so it can heal properly.
Then on top of all of that, his chest is infected. Doctor Fowler said that it looked a little bit better today, (praise the Lord) but he would give it until tomorrow morning to do some more healing if it is going to. He is scared Daddy could become septic and that is where the infection gets into your blood stream (not a good thing at all). We just hope and pray (know) he is healing and WILL NOT have to have his chest opened for a fourth time. If the decision is made to proceed because he is not responding to the antibiotics as needed, they will remove the three titanium plates that are screwed into his sternum, remove all of the infection they can, and leave him open to heal from the inside out. UNREAL and YUCK! This will require the wet to dry dressings and eventually another wound vac.
I don't know how living that way is possible, but I keep telling Daddy, that if that is what it comes to then he just has to face it head on just like he has done in the past and have faith that this is necessary. We so want this all to be avoided! All we can do now is pray. He needs a miracle! He needs to be healed! Please pray for my Daddy!

2009-01-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

HARD TO BELIEVE>>>>>

My Daddy has been back in the hospital since 10:40 pm on December 31. He had to be taken by ambulance from his home, which was like being on a roller coaster (according to Daddy). He really gave us quite a scare and I thought, for the first time since all of this began, that I could truly lose him. I talked to him at 7:00 pm just before my family and I went to David's annual New Year's party, and he was doing wonderfully. He still had a lot of pain in his chest, but said he had his best day since the second surgery. I felt wonderful talking to him and hearing the positive tone in his voice. Who would ever dream that just two hours later I would get a call from my Mother saying, "Don't get upset, but Daddy's going to have to go back to the hospital. His chest is swelling badly and we don't know what is wrong, but the doctor said to hurry back to the hospital." I could hear my Daddy wailing in the background for her to hurry and there was a definite panic sound in his voice.

I couldn't believe my ears and told Craig and the kids who were in disbelief right with me. My Daddy had already gone through so, so much, how could something else go wrong. Well, Craig left the boys and gathered up Kamden and we rushed to the hospital. I called my one of my dearest old best buddies, Leigh-Leigh, who was working in the ER that night and told her to expect him. Actually we texted for a while and then we spoke. She made sure that Daddy had a suitable room (#7) in the Critical Cardiac unit and that everyone was aware of his situation and would be ready to work on him when he got there. I think our entire outcome could have been different if she hadn't been filling in for another nurse. Thanks Leigh-Leigh from the bottom of my heart for taking such wonderful care of my Daddy through all of this, but especially on New Year's Eve. Craig dropped me off just as the ambulance had delivered Daddy, so Leigh had seen him. She wouldn't look me in the face, but instead walked ahead and casually said, "Prepare yourself . . . he looks pretty bad!"

When I walked into the room I felt numb. My sweet Daddy was in horrific pain and his chest had swollen to about 5 times the original size and his staples (that were still there from the plastic surgeon removing half on Monday) were pulling and leaking blood all down his chest. The holes where he had previously had chest tubes (the doctor had also removed these on Monday - mistake I think) were draining profusely. He looked like a pigeon or like Mighty Mouse because his chest was so swollen and engorged. He grabbed my hand and said, "If I die, I love you and your children more than anything on this earth! I know my body can't take much more. I am going to bust wide open! I wish God would just take me and not make me suffer!"

I was there for that moment with no one else in this room except us and time seemed to stand still as tears poured from my eyes. I felt that I was in a nightmare! I had not imagined that he would be in such bad shape. I raised my voice and got down to his face, looked him squarely in the eyes and said, "I need you and I love you so much! You can't give up like this! You have to fight with every ounce of strength you have! God doesn't want you right now!" What else could I do? He grimaced in pain like he was having a heart attack and kept yelling for help. Somewhere in all of that he told me he loved me again and he wanted to know where Craig was and to tell him that he loved him too.

Finally a cardiac doctor and Dr. Fowler (a plastic surgeon he had seen at Roger C. Peace) walked in and got the wheels in motion to get Daddy prepared for a third chest opening after chest x-rays and a CAT Scan. Dr. Folwer declared it an emergency (dahhh) at about 11:45 pm. He didn't sugar coat anything and "matter of factly" explained how Daddy was going back to square one. His chest would be completely opened once again. Daddy said, "NO!" and looked at me so helplessly. Mother was literally crumbling and crying. Daddy was given plasma so his blood would clot properly as the New Year rang in throughout the hospital workers. It was all so surreal and in slow, slow motion. They took him back around 1:00 am and the last thing he said was for me to call my preacher and have him pray for him.

Mother, Margaret (Daddy's sister), Jerry (brother in-law), Craig, and I sat up in the CVICU until finally Dr. Fowler emerged from opening my Daddy's chest and draining all of the blood (600 cc's to be exact) that had formed a large hematoma. We finally got to see him at 5:15 am and he said he felt so much better getting all of that pressure off of his chest. He was back in CVICU so he could be well monitored.

It has been four days post-surgery and he is now in a regular hospital room. Dr. Fowler first had his chest bound with something like a girdle, but then changed to ace bandages wrapped tightly. Daddy has now had six blood transfusions because his hemoglobin has been so low (6.7) and they want it to be 12 or so. He is once again in healing mode with two chest tubes. It is very painful to do just about anything but lay around in the hospital bed. He did actually take a short walk in the hallway yesterday because he felt like he had a bubble of air in his abdomen and it was causing extra pain so walking a bit may have helped to work it out. He could have to have more surgery on his leg wound because it continues to fill the "JP" drain and they expected it to stop by now. He just has so much healing to do.

To those of you who read my blog and made it through this long post, please continue to keep my daddy in your prayers. We hope that this is the final "leg" of the journey and that the "third time is the charm". Thanks for your support and prayers. We love him so much!

2008-12-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

The Santa visit really paid off for my kids. They got everything and more than they asked for. Cole wanted Guitar Hero for the Wii. Kamden wanted a "Scooby Car" (The Mystery Machine). Max wanted a set of left handed golf clubs. I wanted a Honda Odyssey, but it wouldn't fit down the chimney - darn! Most of all I wanted my Daddy to be released from the hospital, but my poor parents had a "Blue Christmas" in room 4410. Craig wanted a trip to Cabo to go fishing with the "Cabo-Boys" but the tickets were no where to be found. Even though the adults didn't get our heart's desires, at least the kids racked up. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day and will enjoy the rest of the "kid filled" holiday. We have all been so blessed!

**Fabulous Update! My Daddy is being released from the hospital
TODAY! Craig and I are fighting off bad head colds with loads of
heavy sneezing, so we are not going to be able to be a bit of help. My Daddy's chest continues to be ever so painful, so we wouldn't want to be responsible for him catching our yuck!
I pray that everything goes smoothly and they are able to get home all safe and sound.

2008-12-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas is just a few days away and having my Daddy make it through his surgery without having to go to ICU is simply the best gift of all! Tonight he sat up on the side of the bed and actually fed himself! This is just one day post-surgery and he is doing great! He is still in a lot of pain, which is understandable - considering he now has three titanium plates in his chest, some kind of muscle flap procedure where they joined together both sides of his chest muscles and they rewired his chest. His incision is much larger than the original one and they stapled it together. I didn't know plastic surgeons stapled, but apparently they do. They also stitched together his open wound on his leg. He is sporting lovely drain tubes on his leg and two from his chest. We are just so THANKFUL that he has the surgery behind him and he is well on his way to being the strong Daddy / Pappy we know him to be.
Kamden has a terrible cough (bronchitis - and on antibiotics) so we can't get her or the boys any where near Daddy. They may have it too and we don't know it yet - so better to be safe than sorry. One more cold and cough might be more than Daddy could take.
My Mother has been right by his side as expected. Mickey, Dee and Jane stayed with Mother while Daddy had his surgery. Thank goodness for wonderful family and friends. I was busy taking Kamden to the doctor and felt so very torn. Daddy's surgery lasted forever. They took him back at 10:20 am and he didn't come back until 3:50 pm. I thought I would never get the call from Mother telling me that it was over! Once again, he is on the slow track to a full recovery! He will be strong and smiling again soon, I just know it!

2008-12-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

My DADDY IS BACK IN THE HOSPITAL!! I can't believe my sweet Daddy has endured so much, and been such a trooper, and now, after a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, has returned to the hospital. He started bleeding from his chest incision and bubbling air - weird, I know, but that is how both of my parents have described how it all started. The heart specialist got him right in for an appointment where they opened his healing incision completely with a surgical knife (or something of the sorts) right there in the office! How sanitary! He said it was so painful! I can only imagine. They poked around with swabs and agreed that he had pulled his wires holding his chest together loose by coughing - thanks to a booger of a cold he has been fighting for two weeks. So they went straight back to the hospital and he is to have surgery on Friday at 12:30 pm. This time a plastic surgeon will open him, rewire, look for any infection, do a muscle flap procedure to secure the area, and possibly use a plate and screw system (don't know what all of that entails).

I looked at the opening on his chest yesterday as they were changing the dressings and it looked like he had lost a recent sword fight! Really, it looked just awful (UNDERSTATEMENT!) and I could NOT believe my eyes! His chest had been doing so great and healing so well! His leg still looks bad and the plastic surgeon says he will probably repair his leg wound also (according to how everything goes). Daddy is excited about that because that would free him from the wound vac (maybe). One nurse told us that he could end up with the vac attached to his chest too. ARGH!

We are just praying that Daddy will remain strong, and have a will to fight with all his might. He keeps saying, "You know, there is only so much shock a body can take. I'll be 71 in March and I just don't know about all of this!" He really doesn't have any choice, but to trust the doctors and pray that they will handle and care for him the way they would want their own parents taken care of. We are all stunned and heartbroken to hear that all of the healing has to be undone and started from scratch - pretty much. If he handles the surgery well and all goes as planned he will return to his regular room. If it doesn't go as planned he will be back in CVICU again. He is going to have a ventilator again and more chest tubes and who knows what else. He has a rough road ahead of him.

Yesterday he and I walked around the floor of the hospital together while Mother went back to their house to get all of their "stuff" and medicines. He said that it was the best he had felt since his surgery. Bless his heart! I could just have broken down in tears right then and there, but I swallowed hard and put on my strong face (only to cry all the way home, about five times already today and now!). I am having a hard time keeping myself together because I am so scared for him! He has always been my "partner, best friend and that's what" (something he always says to me!). Please keep him especially in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, and in the weeks to follow as he faces another long recovery period.

2008-12-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

DADDY / PAPPY IS HOME!
Friday afternoon, around 3:30 pm my Daddy was officially released from Roger C. Peace. I am sure being outside on a beautiful sunny day and driving down the road in their van was quite a surreal experience for them. I followed them for a little while and my mom called on my cell phone with excitement about the drop in gas prices ($1.39). She had heard about the price going down, but to actually see it large and in "real life" was shocking. They slowed down to a crawl to appreciate the beauty of low numbers! It was funny for that to excite them, but it did! They went on home and I stopped to grab some groceries for them and all of Daddy prescriptions (seemed like 20 or more) and ran home for Craig to load our recliner in my van. My parents have a recliner that is not nearly as comfy as ours and theirs took quite a bit of arm action (big no-no for heart patients) to get it to recline, so we figured our big, soft green recliner would work out better for Daddy. The boys constantly fight over sitting in it and were sad to see it go. I now have more room in my family room, and less confusion, so I am happy. Christmas trees always offset the entire balance of our already crowded space.
Speaking of our beautiful tree . . . that cotton-picking booger fell on Tuesday night (last week) while we were all snug in our beds taking a long winter's nap. No one heard it, but I think my head twirled around on my shoulders - three times Wednesday morning! I said I couldn't take much more Christmas decorating, but guess who got to decorate the darned tree again, once it was tied by ropes to the window trim and a built-in bookcase? JOY! Why on earth would they make a large, heavy, pre-lit tree with flimsy plastic feet? ARGH! I know having every ornament on the very front of the tree didn't help either!
My parents were certainly happy to have their house all decked out for the holidays. Daddy said they wouldn't have had Christmas without our hard work (bless his heart). Mother has thanked me everyday for all that we have done. I am just so glad they are finally home to enjoy it all. I don't think anyone could have stood another week in that place! The nurses and doctors were great to my parents, but they felt imprisoned, not to mention Daddy was more than tired of the food! Daddy feels very useless and weak, which work together to make him angry. He has always been such a "get-er-done" kind of man, so using patience is becoming a honed art form for him.
Taking one day at a time is the only way he is going to get better. Mother is feeding him well, they are sleeping in their comfy bed, he is taking tons of meds, the wound vac is doing its thing, he is napping throughout the day (when he is not eating) and the home health nurse is visiting three times a week to re-dress the wound /vac area. He is definitely well taken care of, so healing is just going to take time. They have plenty of family and friends checking on them, so they are in good shape in my eyes, but Daddy feels he still has a huge mountain in front of him he has to attempt to climb everyday. Truly we are all so blessed and have countless things to be thankful for. "Think positive," I keep telling him. Eventually he will catch on!

2008-12-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

After two really rough days, my Daddy is doing so much better. I really believe we witnessed a miracle last night around 8pm, when after two straight days of being in the bed and coughing his lungs out, he decided to get up and walk around the halls. It was truly amazing! Today when I walked in the room he said, "I like to have died the past two days, and now I feel much better!" Prayer really works! Dr. Hippensteal had a pulmonary doctor (Dr. McCraw) check out the CT Scan they did on Monday night and we thought he was going to have to drain the fluid from around his lung yesterday evening, but thank the good Lord he didn't! They had already had him sign the release forms and had the "tools" (looked like a railroad spike!) to get the job done sitting in the room (ready for action). Daddy wanted to shake that doctor's hand! Finally, someone gave him a break! His chest is still painful because he has coughed a rib loose from the "joint" where it meets the cartilage. You can actually see it protruding. They started him on prednisone last night at 10pm and he is on another round of antibiotics. His leg is still on the vac system, so the ugliness remains "under wraps". We all kind of forgot about the leg when his chest became so very painful. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Angel for keeping my kids so I could run back to the hospital and watch the procedure that didn't end up taking place. She is my truest, very best friend in the whole wide world and I love her! Not just anybody would be willing to take on my bunch! Thanks to Val for volunteering too. Hopefully this is the last "scare" we will have and they will consider releasing my parents soon. This has been so hard on them! Thanks to Mickey and Dee for always visiting and calling to check up on everything. What would my parents do without such caring family? Keep praying for my Daddy - obviously it is working!

2008-12-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

Well we made it through another weekend with Daddy in the ~~hospital~~ Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Center. He had a really bad night on Saturday night and coughed instead of sleeping. He had several rough episodes when he couldn't catch his breath. Now he is on an antibiotic called Cipro (sp?) and is taking a much stronger med for his cough. They did a chest x-ray and should get the results today. I asked the nurse for a sleeping pill for him last night and after the doctor's approval they gave him one at 11:00 pm and he slept like a baby. Nothing like a good night's sleep to make you feel better! He is still having a lot of pain in and around his wound on his thigh and now his chest is really hurting. I am sure he has pulled muscles coughing - hopefully not wires where they put him back together after heart surgery. I made a picture of the wound vac that is hopefully aiding in the healing process. This looks much better than the pictures I have made of the wound itself! Yuck!
I included a few pictures of Mother's birthday on November 30th we celebrated in the "gathering room". What a great picture of my parents! Kamden and I made cupcakes and we all enjoyed some time together in another room besides #2807.
OK, I said no more Christmas decorating, but I just had to do this! I made a great little pick-me-up gift basket to decorate my Daddy's room. I got this wonderful idea from a fellow blogger, Wendy. Thanks for planting a seed and motivating me in an awesome direction. A basket from Ross (one of my favorite stores on earth!) and a few things I had in my own (too much) Christmas decorations and voila! I even put some energy efficient, tiny LED lights on the little tree so it even looks pretty with the lights off. My Daddy's sister (who is super crafty) came by to visit last night and said I "out did myself" on the basket! Yeah! Anyway, MeeMee and Pappy liked it and that's what mattered most of all!

I am finishing up on getting all of my families' (and their) laundry done and will be off to visit with my precious parents. I hope they will get some good news from the doctors today. Maybe even a date of a possible homecoming! I think today is the day for removing the packing and measuring the leg wound and taking a bit of dead skin off (not a fun event). I will post soon with some good news - I hope!

2008-12-04T07:15:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update on my Daddy, also known as Pappy! He is still in the rehab section of the hospital called Roger C. Peace. His leg wound still looks horrible. My Mother can't even look at it. Today they are putting an appliance called a wound vac on his upper thigh to draw out drainage and hopefully help the healing process. I think they are just moving from one thing to the next to hopefully find something that works. I have been taking close up pictures so we can keep up with progress, but will not post them because there is nothing pleasant at all about how bad his opening looks. Angel and Leigh, sorry for sending a few on your cell phones. Hopefully you were not eating!
On top of the pain from his leg, he now has a bad cold with sneezing and coughing which hurts his chest like crazy. This morning Dr. Hippensteal heard a rattle in his left and right lung and they are starting breathing treatments again. On Tuesday an x-ray showed a little fluid in his left lung, but not pneumonia. His oxygen level went down substantially last night and once again he is on oxygen. I feel so sorry for my parents! We were hoping they would get to go home and now it looks like that wont be happening for a while. It has been over a month now (November 4th)!
My children, Craig and I went to my parents home and put up their Christmas tree and all of their decorations. Surprise! The kids quite enjoyed looking at and handling (argh!) all of the cool ornaments their grandparents have collected for so many years. Thank goodness nothing was broken during the crazy "appreciation moments"! Hopefully the tree will not fall forward, since most of the ornaments were specially placed on the very front of the tree! You know, that's what kids do! We are praying that my parents will get to go home soon to enjoy all of their decorations. Lord knows we didn't put things where they were supposed to be, but this is a Davenport twist on the Pearson house! One thing is certain, I would never be a Christmas decorator for a living! I think I will scream "BAH- HUM-BUG!" if I have to do much more decorating!
I'm off to the hospital again with positive thoughts, clean clothes, and some food for Mother, also known as MeeMee! Keep them in your thoughts and prayers!

2008-11-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

My Daddy has really been through a lot - to say the least! The pictures above are just a few of the day by day journey through open-heart surgery! Yes, I made him smile, but he instantly went back to his sad look after the camera clicked. His chest pain is much better and his heart (praise the Lord) is doing everything right. The only things holding him back are his legs - especially his right. He has an open wound on his upper thigh from the doctor strolling in his room and declaring that he had to have the incision from the vein harvesting opened and drained. The physician's assistant came in and opened the very painful sight using scissors (with no pain medication for my poor Daddy who moaned in pain) and proceeded insert his entire pointer finger & a few swabs under the skin and other tissues until he ruptured the blood clot that was causing such pressure. It looked like a volcano erupting! OH MY! I witnessed the entire event and wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. It was definitely a sight I will never forget! Now, Daddy has a large gaping hole in his upper thigh and cellulitis on his lower leg. I keep questioning the possibility of Staph, but the medical pros just "blow me off". Long and short of it is that he just can't walk by himself, let alone get up. He barely can take baby steps with two aides on either side and is in terrific pain. Never thought this would happen from heart surgery! We have since heard from others that the legs could be the most painful. He just doesn't seem to be getting any better and today they are talking about sending him home. My parents just couldn't handle being at home with no help from trained professionals. I, of course, would be there as much as possible and feel totally capable to dress the wound areas (I videoed the nurse, so now I am trained - ha!), but after Tuesday the kids will be out of school. I think one loving leap in the lap from Kamden would send my Daddy over the edge! I just don't know what is going to happen and I am so worried for Daddy and Mother. There is a rehabilitation place next door to the hospital, but Mother wouldn't be able to stay with Daddy and he doesn't want her to leave him. Argh! I pray that he can at least stay two more days in the hospital, as I think that would make a difference in his mobility. WE SHALL SEE! You know how all hospitals want to kick you out on your nose? Well after nearly three weeks of Daddy being in there I think they are more than ready to give him the boot! Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers, y'all!

2008-11-18T06:09:00.000-08:00

Daddy's surgery went well on Wednesday, but nothing could have prepared us for how he would look when it was over! My mom and I walked into the room he was in and it echoed with sounds from an array of busy machines surrounding him like I have never heard before - pumps, puffs, beeps and constant humms. The wires and cords covered his head and body like a maze. And there was my poor, very swollen daddy beneath it all. We wept like babies. How could this be? He was so lifeless and distorted. Luckily, there has been daily progress, but it has been slow. He takes two baby steps forward and one step backwards, and we have learned to accept this happily. He had five bypasses and a maze procedure to hopefully correct the afib condition. They took veins from both legs and his chest to replace the blocked ones - so he really is sore all over! He is now having problems with his lungs and taking deep breaths, which hurts clear through to his heart. One doctor thinks he has pneumonia in his left lung, but another doctor doesn't quite agree - so who knows. He is just so SAD. He has cried a couple of times (NEVER have I seen my STRONG Daddy weep) and keeps apologizing for putting everyone out so much. I think this must be the hardest surgery on your body you can have and survive it. The nurses keep reminding us that depression occurs in many of their open-heart surgery patients, but we hope this is just fleeting sadness and he will be back to his happy self SOON.
He was officially moved to a regular room on the heart monitoring floor yesterday. We couldn't be happier to be out of the CV-ICU. We could only be with him for a few hours at a time when he was in there and it seemed like he would improve while we were in there and then go downhill when we left. It has all been very frustrating with many hours (5 days and nights!) spent in a very uncomfortable, small waiting room. My sweet mother never left Daddy. She has spent every night at the hospital since election day when this whole thing started. The five sleepless nights on the hard mini-love seats were especially uncomfortable, but there was no way she would choose to be in a comfy bed while Daddy was just down the hall going through so much. She kept telling each of the nurses (and he had many) that she was just down the hall. I hope last night was better for her. She could sleep right beside her true love and listen to him breathe. I think that kind of contact is healing for both of them. Many, MANY people would tell her to leave and let the nurses do their job, but she would hear nothing of it. He would never leave her and she would never leave him - they have obviously made a pact. Mother's sisters Delores and Betty switched off staying with her at night and I am very thankful for them. My children needed me too, so Mother would hear nothing of me staying the night, but I felt so guilty leaving her.
I must run to the hospital while the kids are in school and encourage my daddy. I want to see him smile again. I love him so much! I want his pain to lessen and for him to be glad that he agreed to have such a big surgery. He has whispered how he wished he hadn't. To regret is to dwell on the past and I want him to see that brighter, happier, painless days are ahead and just around the corner! He has made it through so much already and I am so proud of him. With everyday we are going to see his strength building up. I will blog again soon and add a couple of pictures. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

2008-11-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, the election didn't turn out like we had hoped, but we must lick our wounds and go on. This is an opportunity to see if O* can really deliver. Only time will tell, and I hope we (the disappointed) will be pleasantly surprised. I'm still hopeful for 2012 - Palin will return. That chick is awesome!

We have had some scary stuff happening in my family. My dad started on Election Day (didn't even get to vote!) having shortness of breath, rapid heart beats and pain down his left arm. He has been in the hospital since then and mother has been right by his side. I have been there everyday to take food and clean clothes to my mom. Daddy had a heart cath. yesterday and has much more blockages than he did this time last year when he had one (85% in 5 arteries). The picture collage is from the night before surgery (all smiles!). Long and short of it all is that he is having open heart surgery on Wednesday (tomorrow) and they are "going to fix him". Those are Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. Barry Davis' very words. Daddy also has an abnormality in his heart that he was born with and they are going to readjust the entire artery. His heart was going crazy last week with a heart rate of 150 and pulse at 80. Daddy's pulse rate is normally around 50 at rest. Luckily Dr. Parker who did the heart cath. yesterday said that his heart muscle looked strong and needed a bit of work to get it running dependably. If he doesn't have surgery he is like a ticking bomb and we just can't have that! I am terribly worried and would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for my daddy. He has quite a long road ahead of him and I have to admit I am a nervous wreck. He had one of those "....If something happens to me...." talks on Sunday when we were alone and I cried like a baby. Nothing can happen to him, because we love and need him too much.

Poor Cole thought that he caused it all by playing football with his Pappy the day before it all started. Angel has been big help with my kids and had Cole when he just crumbled in tears last Tuesday. She dried his tears and prayed with him for his Pappy. Thanks for making Cole feel better and for being there for us. We love you Angel!

I am off to the hospital to take my mom some breakfast and to spend the day with my Daddy. I am taking the video camera so we can do some before videos. Daddy wants me to record his talent of making his chest muscles jump on command! My kids think this is an amazing talent. With his chest being opened and muscles being cut, he is afraid he will never be able to show off for them again and he wants it all documented. I know this sounds weird to some, but if you know my crazy Daddy, you would know this is pure Joe Pearson! He is so funny and loves to show off is muscles. He has always been fit and exercises everyday to keep that way. Within the last couple of years he has had two total knee replacements and had a beautiful recovery. Before he was in a lot of pain and hobbled around. Now he could be a spokesperson for why you should have your knees replaced if you even think you need it. I hope and pray that his heart surgery turns out the same way. He has a great, positive attitude and that can make a REAL difference.

2008-11-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone will take time tomorrow to make their vote count. You can make a difference! I do have my favorites - daaah! My kids think election day is a holiday because schools are closed. They are quite excited. I am sure the lines will be long and we will spend quite a bit of their "free" time waiting for me to vote. I don't feel great (nasty virus) and have spent the entire weekend sick, but I plan to wait my turn to make a difference. This is the perfect opportunity to show my kids that everything counts, even one person and one vote. I really think Max gets it. He has been very interested in everything political lately. He nearly can't handle it when someone we know says they are voting for O****. I have to nearly put a sock in his mouth. I am sure this election will be a close one, which makes it quite exciting. Happy voting everyone and best wishes for short lines and determined voters!

2008-10-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious I have obviously been lost in FALL y'all. So much has been going on around here; I just haven't taken the time to blog. I love looking at a bunch of blogs and by the time I take a peek at other's lives, I don't have the time to blog about my own! Any - WHO, here I am finally!

I'll start off by saying baseball is over, for a little while at least! We had the last fall tournament and the guys won all of their games except for the final (and most important one) against Easley. They are apparently (news to me) our rivals! Our guys wanted to win so badly, but they just couldn't do it. The Southern Steal really had a fabulous winning streak of 15 games in a row. That is in itself fantastic and losing one game is nothing to be ashamed of, but those words couldn't ease the pain my poor Cole felt after swinging the final strike of the last out of the game. He was HEARTBROKEN and there was nothing I could say to make it better. He sobbed from deep inside his heart. I can't lie, I hurt too, but for my child who felt like he had let his team down. It felt like a movie in slow motion. I will one day look back at my video that I was taking and surly, once again, feel the hot poker in the heart that I felt for my guy! On a happy note they got the biggest trophy they have ever gotten, but that didn't make a single player happy. "The winners got gold and they got crummy old silver" (a Cole quote). We will be happy to have a break and the boys need to get over the loss. They have a lot ahead of them, and they will bounce back and learn from all of this. You have to loose like a winner to win like a winner - what? It made sense to say to Cole at the time - but looks strange now seeing it typed on my screen! Kamden, still wanted to hold the trophy and was quite proud of her big brother, just as we all were!

It is already trick-or-treat time around here. We went to a "Trunk-or-Treat" at our neighbor's church on Sunday night and the kids had a ball. This was the perfect test run for the REAL Halloween! No, I could not talk Miss K into being a pretty princess, instead, Kamden was a spooky spider, Cole was a hunter (easy to pull together outfit in a flash), and Max was Max. He is officially too old for dressing up, or for "begging for candy from strangers", but doesn't mind at all bumming candy off of his brother and sister. I put a big hairy spider on my back (home decoration) and was the mommie spider, which thrilled Kamden to death! Craig thought I looked like a goober! We ran into a guy we went to high school with (hadn't seen him in ten long years) and he hugged me and my spider - pretty funny! "Watch out for mommie's big hairy spider", Kamden screamed! Belly laughing moment - guess you had to be there! Bryson, my nephew, went with us and had a great time hanging out with the cousins! He is pictured (above) with Cole after the big baseball game. We just love him!

Today was team dress up day for Red Ribbon week at school. Cole, of course, wore a Clemson sweatshirt. Kamden wore an old hand-me-down Furman University sweatshirt that both Max and Cole wore when they were 5 or 6. She thought she looked awesome - especially since it was her brothers'! Craig's sister graduated from Furman and is now in her fourth year at medical school. Max really wants to follow in her footsteps. I hope he does too! She has always been a super smart cookie and has done well at whatever she sets her mind to do. We are so proud of her! We hardly ever get to see her because she is so busy with a very full life! I couldn't imagine doing what she is doing now! She is specializing in radiology, which means an extra four years of schooling (maybe five - I can't remember). You go girl!

Well, we have pumpkin carving and more trick-or-treating ahead of us. Our dentist would be proud - we are brushing and flossing. We will not have cavities at our next visit! Wasn't Halloween started by The American Dental Association? Have a happy boo-day and more fun on the way!

Wahoo - Over 1,000 Clicks - Chicks!

2008-10-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

This is a real painted cat! Talk about weird! No we don't do this kind of stuff to our kitties in the south - just thought I would share a spooky Halloween-ish picture I received in an email! Here comes the big news......(drum roll)..........I am shocked that I have had 1,010 hits on my blog since its creation! I know that that is pure peanuts to some mega-bloggers out there, but I feel that I have really done something - over a thousand clicks on my little old page in the massive blog world! From free panties (see below blog for details) to this, I am easy to get excited! I know, I really need to get a life! Happy Tuesday!

Another Championship!

2008-10-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

We just spent another weekend full of travel team baseball and guess what? Cole's team won their third championship! Wahoo! Go Southern Steal! So far, they are ranked the top team in the state! They have won 12 consecutive games and have the State Championship coming up this next weekend. These guys have done so well and us parents couldn't be more proud. This is a group of pictures of all of us. We really had a great weekend!

Yahoo! This is not a laundry Monday for a change! Don't worry, it will be waiting for me tomorrow! I had a teacher meeting with Cole's science teacher at 8:30 am (yuck), who's name is oddly enough Ms. Cole. How confusing is that for my poor guy. Bet we never forget her name! I then visited with my sweet girl in her K-4 class who did not want me to leave, went grocery shopping at Bargains (that's a discount food store that I have always loved), and then the boys had piano after school. My day was officially shot! On Mondays I spend about two and a half hours (sometimes longer) in my car waiting in both school lines and piano! I do have "green thoughts" and turn the engine off (some of the time) to conserve precious fuel! Diddly do -Gas was down to $2.83 today! Who would have ever thought that would be a "low" amount! What is this world coming to?

As you can see in the pictures, my Mother and Daddy have finally returned from Myrtle Beach - their second home - ha ha! They were only gone for three weeks, but it seems like longer when they aren't near by. They have so much fun down their with all of their camping buddies! Anyway, we are so thankful they made it back without a hitch - well except for the can of spray Crisco that coated all of their groceries, car carpet and a bit of their house with oil when they unloaded the mess. Poor Mommie! Word to my Mother: "Never pack aerosol cans on the bottom of your stuff - always in a protected top space". Heck, use a zip-lock baggie just to be safe! Hind sight is always twenty/twenty - huh mom?

Wow-WEE it's Wedgie Free Wednesday - tell your friends!

2008-10-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Something FREE that I love and thought I would share the fun: Wedgie-Free Wednesday sweeps at http://wedgiefree.com/. This is from Hanes and I have gotten two FREE panties in the mail so far. You can ONLY enter on Wednesdays - hence the name! It really doesn't take much to make me happy these days. Now, they are not super sexy Victoria panties, but very comfy and don't creep in the crack (if you know what I mean). They don't send junk mail or the likes, and I haven't even received any "Congratulations - You Won" emails, just freebies in the mail. I found this on a blog I check out every now and then called freebies4mom.blogspot.com. This chick makes sure there isn't any junk attached to freebies or sweeps. I have actually gotten a bunch of coupons and free samples in the mail recently, but the panties make me laugh out loud! My mom has entered and so has Angel, but they haven't received any yet, but I don't think they have given it long enough. I think there is about a four week turnaround. Good luck!

Mountain Monday!

2008-10-06T09:41:00.001-07:00

Hello Mountain Monday! This is my yuck day if I haven't been smart throughout the week or even weekend and gotten a few loads of lovely laundry done. Lord have mercy, I despise sorting, washing, folding, and returning clothes to their proper drawer! Heaven help me if I were living back in my grandmother's (rest their souls) younger days when they actually had to do laundry in wash pots over an open flame stirring with a stick and scrubbing on a board. I would die! My children and husband would surely wear everything until it stunk like a skunk and would actually stand up in a corner all by itself from pure nastiness. You think I am kidding? Not in the least! My family is very "clothes rich" and I am to blame because I bring every last piece in the house. I apparently want them to have plenty of choices and I want them to look nice. Even though I make sure there are nice, CLEAN clothes available, Cole and Kamden are happiest when they look ragged and homeless. Bless their hearts, they love what we call "play clothes". You know the ones I don't care if they get chicken doody on because I view them as disposable - almost. Max always has stayed clean (thank you buddy - no stain stick needed for you). Thank God for my wonderful washer and dryer! Here's a big shout out to the fabulous person, in our not so distant past, who had the forethought to know that I would die if they hadn't have invented the washer and dryer! I really should be massively(underline, underline) THANKFUL instead of irritated when doing laundry and I actually try to play a kind of mind game with myself (works sometimes).

I don't know if anyone else is in my shoes, but my kids will try something on and change their minds, or only wear it for a few (clean) hours and decide to change - and instead of folding (yes I have shown them how many times) then they toss their clothes in the laundry hamper (all of them - including my hubby). ARGH! I could just hang myself on a hook when I sort laundry and realize clean stuff has been wadded up with dirty stuff and crammed in. Now it all has to be washed and I do complain out loud - with an audience and sometimes to myself like a crazy woman! I consistently notice how I have very few things to wash, so it's not my doings.

I wouldn't trade my family of five for anything in this world - their mountains of accumulating laundry I could more than do without. When I feel most agitated (washing machine throwback) I have to tell myself to think of others with a house full of dirty clothes creators! Think about poor John and Kate Plus Eight! I hope that poor woman has more help than she lets on when it comes to laundry. But, maybe she really is just a super, WONDER-WOMAN and can leap big piles of "L" in a single bound! When I think about (real) families who have droves of children, like a lady that lives just down the street from me who has eleven, I think about the laundry. I am so warped! I even asked her once how she ever got it done (truth - never is done) and she said, "Everyone helps!". Wonder what that's like? Here's my theory: I actually think that they only have a few pieces of clothing and wear them many, many times until they themselves (no matter what the age) have to wash, or wear it dirty (again). Perfect plan if you ask me. I should take note!

I know there will come a day in the future when I would gladly (haa haaa!) take the lovely, sometimes backlogged, laundry days back in exchange for having my house full of kids again! That is at least what I am told by the "older than I generation". I have already told my oldest (Max) that his days are numbered and that once he leaves home for college (in four years) he'd better not come home with dirty clothes. Mean-Momma-Me, - I can dream, can't I? Let's just see what happens! I hear the washer beeping! Sounds like music to my ears! Must get 'er done! Hope to have a mountain conquering MONDAY!

Just a thought: Sarah Palin really IS the smartest woman ever . . . she has figured out how to get her husband to do the laundry! Right! HEEE HEEE! If he plays his cards right he won't even have to do it!

2008-10-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Kamden's 4-K Pumpkin Patch Field Trip was a blast on Thursday (Oct. 2)! There was a tractor /wagon ride where we got to see the apple orchards, beautiful deer who are quite the peanut butter cracker lovers, geese (loud and aggressive), have a duckie race using old fashioned pumps, feed the goats (old hat for us), milk a wooden cow (you would have to be there to understand this one), and wash our hands at a cool troth with soap dangling from pantyhose (weird, but worked). We even had ice cream (yummy - but burrrr). The children had so much fun and all got a cute little pumpkin to take home. Kamden got the runt pumpkin - an apple looks large next to it, but it is cute. She had so much fun with her little friends and showed me her boyfriend (WHAT--- Craig and the boys will die!). His name is Christian and he is a quiet, nice boy who luckily could care less about our girl. Don't know where this boyfriend idea has jumped into her brain from, but we need to keep it in check. She loves her teachers and seems to enjoy her time with everyone.
Kamden's teacher asked me to do a craft with the children today. Two days in a row at her school has officially warped her and I need medication. She loves having me there, but honest to goodness if I had to be a 4-K teacher I would die. Isn't that awful? But I am just being honest! Those teachers deserve every single dime they make and then some. Bless their hearts. Anyway, I took one of the group pictures from the trip (impossible to get them all to look at me for the picture - but I did my best) and they made a fridge magnet out of it. Turned out cute - but even foam sticker decorations proved to be quite the challenge. I had the bright idea to let them put their names in those sticky, foam letters at the bottom of the picture. Big mistake - I don't think we will do that one again! I felt like I was on a game show trying to quickly find all of their letters in their names before the bell rang to end the day. Whew, it is done and everyone ended the day with a cool craft.

2008-09-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am posting about my little ol' life! Last weekend was another baseball weekend and the "Southern Steal" won another championship! Two in a row! How awesome is that? The guys won all of their games, but Cole got "slammed" in the back by the baseball, while at bat by the other teams pitcher, TWO TIMES - in the same game & same spot on his poor back - no LESS! He has had a sore back this past week! His team has really come a long way and we are quite proud.

I have been hard at work tagging items for yet another consignment sale! This is my third this season. Tots to Teens is the name of this one and it is in Greenville. It is a much smaller sale, but that could and seems to be working in my favor. Angel is once again selling t-shirts and squeaky shoes and she said she has seen a bunch of my stuff going through the registers today. Yeah me! Tagging the items was very different from the others because it was done on the computer with bar codes and everything. Pretty high tech! This way I can see exactly what has sold and was hasn't. Cool! Once I got over my "oooh this is going to be hard.... I can't.....this will take too much time....." goofy mind reasoning and just sat down and figured out the entering process it was SOoooo much easier! I love that I can account for everything. Never had that kind of sure feeling about my sales before.

Yeah! My oven is finally fixed! We had to get a new (speedy) company to get the job done! I guess Jackie at the other fix it place will be stuck with my part if she ever finds it! Craig was so excited he made two pumpkin pies and our family's favorite chicken casserole last night while I was shopping at the early-bird "Queen Bee" sale at the consignment sale. Euphoria again.....sigh! CRAZY PEOPLE GO TO THOSE SALES AND I AM GLAD I AM NOT ALONE! I have a smart hubby who can really cook! The kid's have been eating pie all day. Hope he has a slice left when he comes home from work!

HAPPY NEWS! We have a new neighbor born on Sept. 12. Her name is Carter Lee and we all think she is beautiful. She has two older brothers, Bailey (10) and Ashton (5), so my boys have been warning them about the future. Things like, "Enjoy her now while she is sweet and little, because when she gets older she will drive you crazy!" You know, lovely sweet sentiments like that. We look forward to watching her grow up! It's fun to have some young neighbors!

Southern Steal Wins Championship!

2008-09-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend of baseball we had! After spending hours in a southern furnace the "Steal" finally won a championship! Cole's team did an outstanding job and we couldn't be more proud! Mee Mee and Pappy were able to be there for the excitement! Cole loves hearing them cheer him on! He made some awesome plays and even hit in the winning run! Way to go Cole! Bryson, Cole's cousin and our nephew, is pictured a couple of times in the collage and we just wanted to say that he did a great job too! The guys were so impressed with their trophies and as you can see, Kamden wanted to know where her trophy was! She thought she should be getting one for being subjected to the elements (whew it was HOT) and long periods of 4 year old (loud) restlessness. I just had to make her picture with the trophy and she was ok then! She was very proud of her brother!

2008-09-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

Anna Grace - turns the big TWO today!
This was a crazy and fun day all wrapped into one! Here I sit at 2:00 am like a wack-job looking at other's blogs and now posting on mine! Do I not think I should have a little sleep? Well I think I am still feeling the euphoria from shopping early at the Weecycled Consignment sale with my "bestest" friend in the world, Angel! We were there from 4:00 pm until 1:25 in the MORNING! Can you say "MARATHON SHOPPING"? Angel was actually there selling her ever popular Carolina Girl T-shirts (and shopping too)! Nanna, Ashton, Kelly, Angel and I had so much fun showing off our "finds" and asking "Do you like this?"! By the time the night was nearly over, my sweet parents came by to give me some much needed bicycle advice (found Kamden a great one) and helped me load my BUNCH of stuff in my van. They are night owls - well sort of - at least my mom is, and she just props toothpicks up in daddy's eyes and drags him along. The alarm clock will go off here at 6:30 am and that will be here before I know it! Must run, but can't log off until I wish Anna Grace a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She is two today (it is now tomorrow Sept. 11)! She is so precious and we all love her!

2008-09-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

My sweet parents!

Fruitful Friday!

2008-09-06T06:45:00.001-07:00

My Daddy and I had a very productive day yesterday! He came over with a yummy Chick-Fil-A biscuit and a truck full of hangers first thing in the morning! I am doing a consignment sale next week and have to have a ton of clothes priced and ready to go by Sunday, September 7th at 7:00. Everything has to be on hangers and goodness knows you can go through a bunch in no time at all. Anyway, my thanks to Pappy for stopping at a local thrift store and sweet-talking a little lady into giving him some hangers. We also organized our messy garage (a little) and hung a few things up on nails. It is amazing how much more room you have when you go vertical! We tried our best to repair the leaky garage doors, but came to the conclusion that the cement was poured wrong. The doors are super big and catch the blowing rain, which just runs down and puddles under the doors. Makes quite a big mess when we get a bit of a storm! Well we tried! Daddy boinked himself on the head with the hammer by leaving it on top of the ladder and then moving the ladder. Bet he won't do that again! Glad he didn't really get hurt, just a little crack on the noggin.
Then we moved onto making some new chicken nests for my "girls" from a recycled football bench that we found next to the dumpster at the high school football stadium. J. G. who made it and signed his initials to the bottom - made it back in 1971. WOW - vintage! Daddy revamped it into great chicken nests for the barn and the boys helped when they got out of school. Daddy was amazed at how strong Max was carrying the newly fashioned nests out to the barn. He said he was as strong as a man! Way to go Maxie!
My mother came here after her hair appointment, so Kamden quite enjoyed having her MeeMee over for some extra loving. I had made a photo album for her for "grandparents" day which is on Sunday, but decided to go ahead and give it to her. She brought every one's attention to an amazing rainbow that went completely across the sky. What a good sign! It was beautiful, but I couldn't see it completely from the top of the chicken coop!
Daddy and I had also found some old metal signs at the football field -roofing material idea! They had put up all new sponsors signs and the old trashed ones made a lovely roof for my chicken coop. As you can tell we are big into recycling around here! I ended up on top of the chicken coop hammering nails in. Never pictured myself doing that, but I can now say that I did it! I was afraid the roof would cave in if daddy or Craig got up there, so I acted like Spider-Woman and tried to distribute my weight on the support beams - if you could call them that! Quite a sight! A few chickens roost on the roof of the coop and tried to scare me to death flying up there and "ice skating" across. They were used to the old rippled roof that gave them a little traction. Funny sight - you will have to take my word for it!
We got so much done in a day. Daddy was a BIG help and I just wanted to thank him. My parents sit down together and read my blog every now and then and I just want you both to know how much I love and appreciate you. We got so much accomplished in a day! I love it when you guys come over and so do the kids! Hope you enjoyed the waffle supper - you deserved steak! Thanks from the barnyard chickens too! They are ready to lay a bunch of eggs in the new nests and will appreciate the "new" roof when the rain comes!

THREE NEW BABY CHICKS & a BILLY!

2008-08-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Kamden and Cole were thrilled to find we have three freshly hatched baby chicks in "Blonde's" nest. She is the most wonderful hen and allows the children to pet her continuously while she is setting on eggs and is friendly and accommodating when my kids want to cuddle the babies. We were hoping for a couple more, but only three hatched. Maybe there's just been too much moisture in the air - who knows. Honestly after buying the 17 chicks from the feed store for Kamden's birthday (only 13 survived to be "teenagers" as we call them), we didn't need a lot more babies joining the family. I don't know for sure, but I believe we have around 60 hens and three roosters who are all just pets.
We got a new goat on Tuesday and can't decide on a name. Kamden wants to call him Billy, but we just have to be a bit more creative with a name than that. A sweet, elderly man at our church gave him to me in exchange for some fresh eggs and a promise that I will sing a song at church for him. Pretty good deal! My parents assisted in the goat delivery, which wasn't the easiest! Thank goodness he is small and young. Our two girl goats, Cocoa and Cookie Dough needed a boyfriend in the yard so eventually we can have some baby goats. Kamden and Cole would love that! The new billy is young, so I believe we will be waiting a while on an offspring. You will notice that I don't mention Max while writing about the barnyard, because he detests everything about it. The most he does is carries the 50 pound bags of feed to the barrels (while I am helping) and he complains the entire way. I am thankful for his help! He is the strongest one here when his daddy is at work. Needless to say he will never have animals as an adult. He doesn't see the beauty or enjoyment in them - and only sees work and nastiness (as he says). He is such a grumpy old man sometimes, but I love him! LOL!

Happy Frustrating Friday

2008-08-29T09:12:00.001-07:00

Have you ever just wanted to open your mouth and scream as loud as you could? I did this morning when once again the chick named Jackie at the appliance fix it joint told me that they couldn't seem to find the part to repair my oven. Argh! We bought this thing only four short years ago and have had countless problems with it. Kamden and I were making muffins on August 10th when something blew (really - scared us) while the oven was preheating. We put the muffins in and they did not cook. Strange - we thought! I must have done something wrong. We tried pushing every high-tech button on this expensive contraption (ES400 Electric Range) and nothing would work. I called Frigidaire, which is owned by Electrolux (huh?) and they finally suggested three repair shops that were authorized. After calling two of them and receiving no answer, I called McDonalds - good name you would think, but NOT! I paid a guy $85 to come out here to tell me what the problem was (a blown control panel). Now I am for sure getting the run-around! My family is about to die without Totino's frozen pizzas, Tacos and Martha White brownies from my oven! Apparently higher fuel costs are effecting my part coming in - according to Jackie - who sounds like she is just counting the minutes until her next smoke break and could really care less. It's Friday and I am being put off yet again for another weekend! They are probably adding up the number of times I have called their repair shop for updates and are going to charge me for each one when and IF I get my part in and they ride in on their horse and wagon to fix it. Sorry I sound so angry, but try living without your oven for an extended period of dinners with five hungry mouths begging. Thank goodness it's not my refrigerator! We would be in a fix then. Oh well, I guess if this is the only thing I have to frustrate me I am in good shape! Happy Frustrating Friday!

2008-08-27T07:11:00.001-07:00

Kamden is all smiles after her first day of K-4! Yeah!

Well my baby has started school (snif, snif) and to my surprise she loves it (so far). She went on Monday and skipped Tuesday (half the class came on Mon. and half on Tues. to start). She was terribly upset to have missed Tuesday and all of the explaining in the world couldn't make it make sense to her. Why were her brothers at school and she was not? She loves Ms. Trotter and Mrs. Walker and got to be the line leader during a walk to the bathroom, so she thinks she is the "stuff". She is such an independent child and would rather do all things "all by herself", so school is perfect for her. They strive to make the four year olds independent because some of them have been "babied" - you know like Max and Cole! Not my girl! I swear she came out of the womb independent and with a definite opinion! She did not cry at all when Craig and I left her on the first day, but I teared up in the car driving away from the school. Craig looked over at me and said, "She'll be fine." I knew she would be fine! That wasn't the problem. The emotional pull at my heart strings, apron strings, and brain strings (yes I have those too) was killing me. All of my children were out of the house and I was not a needed constant in the home. Premature empty nest cyndrome? True, I am free (sort of), but a super strange feeling came over me and I just couldn't hold back the explosive tears from jumping out of my eyes!

Today I went to a volunteer breakfast at the school and committed myself in every way I could to her teacher. I am the room mom and I hope that makes Miss K happy! I will also be helping with Cole's class (5th grade dance, parties, and DC trip). I sat with him while he had a school breakfast (something he normally doesn't do) and I sat with Kamden who eats breakfast everyday with her entire class. She was so proud to have me there and wanted me to see her favorite kid in the class. Her name was Anna Lee and her brother is in Cole's class. These little girls have a lot in common already with big brothers. Plus they will both be taking speech together (just heard the good news from the speech teacher!). I am amazed at what a wonderful little girl I have. She is an obedient student and respects her teachers and classmates. We must have done something right! I am so proud of her and miss her loud voice ringing through the house. Never thought I would say that! Way to go big girl Kamden. Time is flying, just like Mother has always told me!

2008-08-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

My how she has grown! From a three week old bundle of joy to a four year old full spirited little girl!

2008-08-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

These are the words to an old song by the group ABBA (who made the "Dancing Queen" disco song famous) called "Slipping Through My Fingers". I stumbled upon it on someone's blog and found it to be so profound!
It makes me think of my Kamden who will be starting school on Monday of next week. I cried listening to the song and reading the words. My baby is turning into a "big girl" and I don't want her to slip through my fingers!

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can't deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers...

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile...

2008-08-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official....summer is over! I am sad and excited for my children to be turning onto a new path in their journey. Max is a "senior" at Wren Middle School. I can't believe he is in the eighth grade! In so many ways he is growing up, but when I look at him I still see the little scared four year old who shook like a leaf walking into school for the first time. He tried to smile to tell me bye when he let go of my hand. I was fighting to hold back the tears until I got back to my car. Now he tosses his book bag over his shoulder and is ready to go without a second thought. Cole on the other hand has been willing and ready since day one. He is happiest around a group of kids laughing and bouncing around. We have always called him Tigger and it is a very fitting nick name! He is a "senior" (fifth grader) at Spearman Elementary! He too is growing and changing in so many ways. I am tearing up typing this (actually boo hooing)....reflecting on how quickly time passes. Wasn't it only yesterday they needed me for everything? I love my boys and I am so proud of them! Max's mature ways of viewing the world yet his innocent perception of so many things. He is considering his future, asking big questions like, "How do you know where you want to go to college? When do you know what you want to do with your life?" These are the questions for a maturing mind! He realizes that his future choices are nearing. It all just scares the life out of me! Cole is refreshing because he is still young enough to LOVE recess with his entire heart. School is a social affair and he greets it with a very toothy smile. Thankfully, his grown up future is still a long, long way off in his mind and he just lives for the moment! He makes my heart smile! Kamden and I have a week to get used to the idea that she will be walking through the doors of her K-4 class. Don't know if I can take it! I hope my boys are having a happy first day and that they love their teachers! Where did our long summer go? Where have those little, sweet arm fulls gone? It is strangely quiet in the Davenport house and I miss them and so does Kamden!

2008-08-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

The sweetest thing happened today! Craig came home and invited Kamden out for a Daddy-Daughter date. I couldn't believe that he came up with the idea without a bit of prodding from me. She was quite excited and was ready to go in an instant! I snapped a few pictures, but Kamden did not want to slow down for hardly a smile. They went to Chuck E. Cheese and to Chick-Filet. When they came home she was sound asleep in Craig's truck and he gently carried her into her room and put her to bed. We kept our fingers crossed that she would stay asleep, but in just a few minutes she made her way to the sofa and that is where she spent the rest of the night. Tomorrow is the first day of school for my boys, so the extra time with them (alone) tonight was wonderful. All systems are go for the first day! Thanks "Big Daddy" for the break and especially for making Kamden feel so special! She is crazy about her Daddy and so am I!

2008-08-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is a blast from our past! In 2006 we went to the beach with the Rice Family for the July 4th week and (of course) had a wonderful time! My children have grown so, so, so much! They have grown loads more hair too! Just thought it would be fun to add a collage (I finally figured it out) to my blog! Thanks for always making great pictures for us Angel! If you weren't with us I swear I would never get in a picture! Hopefully my children will remember that I am usually (always) the one behind the camera unless it is a "staged" Angel assisted photo session! Enjoy these great pictures of my family from two years ago!

My Mom & Daddy a/k/a Mee Mee & Pappy

2008-07-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Mee Mee and Pappy - as we all call them. This is my Mother and Daddy I love them both so much. Yesterday they came by for a haircut and visit! We LOVE having them over and are so thankful to have them in our lives. Now that they are "Pickeneese" they live a few more miles down the road, so it seems that we don't see them as much. They hang out a lot at various doctors' offices throughout the week trying to get things straightened out with Pappy's heart and now hips. He suddenly began having super sharp pains deep in his hips on Tuesday night and was rolling around in the floor in pain. It has to be bad for him to be on the floor. Hopefully they will get to the bottom of the situation and find out what is causing all of this. I am sure it will take them playing "doctor tag" to a few of the professionals for who knows how long. I hate to see my daddy hurting. He tried to put on a brave face for us last night, but admitted to having some really bad pain. Mee Mee is the super wife by his side making sure that everything is done RIGHT. We are so thankful for her! They better not try to over-charge for the least little thing. She is a stickler - glad somebody is!
My kids LOVE spending time with my parents! Listening to all of the "back when I was a kid..." stories really connects my kids to the true to life past. I just love us all being together! Some of our best times have been spent with them at the beach in their camper. We truly spend some wonderful, close family time there in the Spring and Summer! I will have to include more pictures later. We love y'all and know you love us!

2008-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

2008-07-26T20:41:00.001-07:00

We have had such a full weekend and it is only Saturday! Our friend Gracie had a princess tea party for her fifth birthday and my Uncle Joe celebrated his 80th with a surprise fish fry. Kamden quite enjoyed dressing up as Snow White and getting all glittered up. Anna Grace was precious - but don't dare try to put a princess dress on the child! Ashton did everyone's hair and Angel did makeup. Thanks for the extra glitter on her scalp (she loves it-hee hee!). I believe we will be reminded of this party for at least a month! How on earth do you get that stuff out anyway? We want Kamden's fifth to be a lot like Miss Gracie's. It was so much fun for all the girls. I am sure that Kamden will make lots of new friends at "BIG" school next year - giving her more little princesses to invite to a party.
Uncle Joe was completely surprised at his party. Cole and Kamden went swimming and the fish was yummy! Cousin Joey did a great job catching and cooking our dinner. Craig and Max had to work an auction tonight, but I brought them plenty of fish home! Happy Birthday to Uncle Joe and Gracie! What a fun day!

2008-07-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Vacation Bible School will be over today and our lives will hopefully get back to summer-time normal. We have enjoyed spending time with all of the little ones, but it is exhausting! I really appreciate my helpers, Max and Ashton so much. Angel, you have been a big help too. We will not know what to do with ourselves after tonight. Let's go to Dollywood!

Welcome

2008-07-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my brand spankin' new blog designed by Ashton - who is rather talented and amazing!
This will be a scrapbook/journal of my life as a mom to three fabulous kids. Max is 13 (so hard to believe!), Cole is 10 (double digit man) and our not so dainty princess, Kamden, who is 4. I am married to my high school love, Craig. Can't believe it has almost been 17 years since we said our "I do's." Time flies when you have a life full of joyful moments.
We are so very blessed!