Yesterday and Today

After spending most of the summer traveling either home to see Mom or to help with the grandkids, I'm finally finding time to do what I love to do most...scrapbook. I signed up for Ali Edwards' "Yesterday and Today" class in May when she offered it again on her website. I wanted to take it when it was originally released with Big Picture Classes but the timing of the class was bad and/or I didn't want to spend the money at the time it was offered. I'd heard many people raving about what  good class it was so I was wishing that I'd found a way to sign up for it. Needless to say I was thrilled to see she was releasing it on her website at a lower price than BPC had originally offered it.

Since signing up for the class I've been focused on getting all the layouts done rather than adding it to the list of unfinished classes I've collected. I'm loving all the layouts and the stories I'm getting recorded from the class. I thought I'd share some of the layouts on my blog since I haven't shared any scrapbook pages in quite awhile.

We started with a cover page that consisted of one picture from our past and 5 smaller photos of us at various stages of our lives. I opted to put all the pictures in black and white except the "today" photo. Very fun to see pictures of me at various ages together in one place.

Next we did a page full of random memories from our childhoods. If we didn't have a picture to go with the memory we were told to either find one online or use embellishments in the picture spots. I had great fun sitting down and writing memories of the neighborhood store where we bought our penny candy, the amusement park we went to every summer, collecting pop bottles and riding the city buses downtown. I was excited to have some of my smaller stories written all together on one page. I may do a few more of these since I loved the process of it so well. I focused on summertime memories on this page but I think I could extend to memories of each season next.

Next we did pages on "hard stories to tell" and I did a page on the day I delivered my stillborn baby boy. It was a story I'd done on a page before but I didn't like the way it was set up so I was happy to just take the journaling from the original page and use it in this format. It's always therapeutic to get some of those hard stories written so that we can process them. I have a few others that I'd like to get recorded in this album as well. Once I get all the pages for the class completed I plan to go back and do additional pages on each theme.

The next assignment was a page with no photos that included either life lessons or things you don't know about me themes. I opted to write out lessons I've learned in 54 years. I love that she gives us some digital items to add to the pages to help them come together nicely. Several of these were completed after I attended the Scrapbook Expo in Duluth, GA and I was able to put to use some of the beautiful new paper I bought there. I love this page as well and enjoyed doing a photo-less page for once. I'm also happy to have a few words of advice for future generations recorded.

The next lesson had two assignments and so far have been my favorite of all the pages. This one explores the idea of "the Unexpected Life" and we were asked to contrast how our lives are different from the one we dreamed of as a child.  I chose to do mine on all the opportunities we've had to travel in our adult lives that I never could have imagined doing in my dreams for my life.

The second assignment was quite a bit of work because I had to round up 29 photos of relatives showing an evolution of family. In Ali's page she put many random pictures of relatives that she didn't even know who they were. I'm very fortunate that I know almost everyone in my collection of heritage photos thanks to my Mom's genealogy hobby. I focused on both sets of grandparents at different ages and my parents at different ages and added in some Aunts and Uncles. We were then supposed to add our own families to the far right. I was fun to see my parents at various stages of their lives as well as my grandparents and realize that we all weathered our way through each age. I think this was my most favorite so far that we've done. It was definitely the most time consuming. It took me a few days just to decide how I wanted to journal on the page.

As we transition away from older photos we had one last assignment to do a comparison page of "then  vs. now"  I found these pictures of Cory hugging me with a similar pose and I immediately knew my page would be about our relationship then versus now and how much fun I am having watching him as a daddy now. I encourage him to enjoy every moment of his kids because they will all grow up in a blink of an eye. That time between these two pictures certainly did fly by quickly. I should also mention that I decided to put butterflies on most of the pages throughout this album to signify change and growth and so you will see them often.

This is the last page I'll share from this class for this post. It's the last one I've completed and I'm in the process of working on the next few lessons. Ali's website is down for two weeks as she does a transition of her business and revamping of her website so our access to the class is limited for the next few weeks. I have the handouts saved though and will do most of them through the information on the handouts. This page uses pocket page protectors which I haven't used until now. We were to write three statements about 11 words and then find pictures to illustrate them. Her page was called "perspective" and I chose instead to to "introspection". I now have to decide what page I will put on the opposite sides of each pocket page. I'll probably do a two page spread for each with pictures in the pocket pages and a larger photo and long story on the left side. I'm thoroughly enjoying this class and am hoping she will offer some of her other classes on her website as well. I'd really like to do her "Hello Story" class as well.

What a Difference a Year Makes

It's been a rough year for my siblings and I as we've watched the rapid decline of our Mom. This picture was taken in June of last year when I met up with my sisters and Mom at our annual family reunion. She knew it would be her last one but we were hopeful she'd see a few more. I visited in September and she was doing fine. She took Russ and I outside to give us plants to take home and showed us her flowers. I took her and Angie out to eat and she served herself at the buffet and talked to us. She seemed to be acting like her same ol' self.

In October, Barb called and said that she had to start taking over Mom's financial stuff because she had forgotten to sign checks, missed paying a few bills and was seeming a little more confused. They took her to the doctor for some tests and he confirmed that she has dementia. From there things started happening at rapid speed and by November she needed someone to help her get dressed and fed. She started doing things that were uncharacteristic of her and would get into OCD types of loops and they'd have to redirect her.

She would have confused spells and then clear spells. By December she was even more dependent needing assistance for even the simplest of tasks. She was losing weight rapidly too. This picture is of us at her doctor's appointment after a CAT scan classified her dementia as Alzheimer's. I started checking out books from the library and reading up on what to expect. Her symptoms didn't mesh with most of the books I read on Alzheimer's. It was going way faster than they described and instead of talking a lot Mom had gone into a silent world. I would say "I love you" and she would say "Okay" and she would answer questions with either a "yes", "no" or "okay" but offer little more conversation. I was beginning to think she was having a bunch of mini-strokes. I was told these would not show up on any scans but it's common for the elderly to have them without anyone knowing.  It was just happening too fast for just dementia.

Angie was driving over to her house every day to get her up and out of bed and feed her breakfast. Richard would get her lunch and keep an eye on her and then Barb would get her to bed at night and bathe her. It was getting harder and harder to keep watch on her. She wasn't very steady on her feet anymore and a few nights Barb heard her getting up in the middle of the night and moving in a loop to the bathroom, back to her bed, pull the covers up, pull them off, and then back to the bathroom. Other times she would get up and be searching in drawers for something but not know what she was looking for. My siblings were starting to get concerned that she would fall during the night.

In mid-January their worst fears happened and she got out of bed and fell flat on her face. Barb heard it and ran in and she was bleeding and vomiting. They called an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital. She was bruised, had a big lump on her head and had a brain bleed. We were told rarely does anyone her age survive a brain bleed. They didn't give us much hope that she would survive it. She was immediately put into Paliative Care and taken off all her medicines. They stopped her IV's for fluids and were just going to let her go. But....they didn't know our Mom very well. She has a way of bouncing back. Prayers were being lifted up for her and she pulled through. Angie and Barb continued giving her water and feeding her. They eventually had to change her status back to Hospice care. She was amazing them. They then put her in a Rehabilitation Center to try to get her taking care of herself and walking again. She worked at it diligently and you could see in her face how hard she was trying to get back to normal.

They finally released her to home hospice care in mid February and they took her to Angie's house to live. Hospice provided a hospital bed and all the things she needs for at-home care. Angie is her full-time care giver   now and she is doing an amazing job. Mom continues to decline rapidly and

we're not sure how much longer we will have her with us. She is down to about 70 lbs and is eating very little now. She is more confused each day but some days she is very alert and we see glimpses of Mom in there. Hospice has told us several times that they don't expect her to live much longer and she continues to amaze them with rebound after rebound.

We've all prepared ourselves that she might not be here by her birthday in August but I would love to see her make it to 90. She's a fighter for sure but her body is failing her and I'm fairly sure she won't see 2015. But God can do great miracles and her time has already been determined by HIM...so we will wait and see what HIS plan is for her.

I hate this disease called Alzheimers. It's hard watching her become something she never wanted to become. It totally scares me knowing this disease is strongly in our genes on her side and if any of us live to be very old, we too might follow this path. In some ways it's like looking at a mirror into our futures and it's not a reflection any of us want to see of ourselves. I love my Mama and I pray that God will give her a peaceful and pain-free departure from this life and wrap her in HIS arms as she goes to her place of rest.

It amazes me how rapidly this disease has attacked her as I write and compare the June picture at the top to the June picture at the bottom. In just 9 months we've watched her fade from us at warp speed. I guess in some ways it's more merciful than 5-10 years of this. If I had known then what I know now there are so many things I would have done differently. I would have talked to her more and asked more questions and had her tell me more stories. The stories and memories are all lost within the depths of her confused mind. I really miss talking to her now. To anyone who may read this, take time to hug your Mom and hear her stories. Take a lot of pictures and take her out to eat or let her show you her garden. Sometimes we all get wrapped up in our busy lives and forget about our elderly. They have so much to teach us about life. Knowing how much she loved her crafts and her genealogy it's sad watching her staring at a television now because that's all she can do. She kept busy in life and I had hoped with as much as she used her brain it would prevent dementia from finding her but it didn't. All the dates she had locked in her brain are gone, all the knowledge of sewing and crocheting and ceramics are gone. So she sits and watches TV or sleeps in her chair and waits......and occasionally she'll surprise me with an "I love you, too, Donna" when I'm visiting or saying hi on the phone and it warms my heart. I cherish those words so much.

A Real Black Friday for Amber

We spent Thanksgiving at Hannah's house last year (2013) and Amber drove over from Durham to spend the day with us. She had to leave early to get back to work her Black Friday shift from 8 pm to 8 am. Hannah, Dantrell and I went Black Friday shopping in Goldsboro. Hannah wanted to buy a new laptop for school and we had several other items we wanted to get. The next morning Hannah came to wake me up and said Amber's car was stolen. While she was working (shortly after the shift started) someone went into the break room and stole keys and wallets from the employees lockers. Amber's keys were among them and when she went outside after her shift, she realized her car was gone. She had left her purse in the car but had put her debit card in her pocket because she had planned to buy something. So the thief got her purse, wallet and several other items with her car. She, of course, was crying her eyes out. She hadn't slept for almost 24 hours and was exhausted. This car was her first vehicle given to her by her Dad after her first year of college. It had gone with her on many road trips. Her boyfriend, Casey, was in Charlotte with his parents and he hopped in the car to come back for her. We hurried and got ready and met her at her apt. Casey went and had the locks on her apartment changed because her apartment keys were also on the keychain. She felt violated and frustrated. She was sure she'd never see the car again.

Russ and I got online and looked for a good rental car deal and told her we would leave my Ion with her and if it wasn't returned we would give her that car as a replacement. We drove a rental car home to GA. She had to wait until Monday to talk to insurance because it was a holiday weekend. She filed a report with the police and after looking at surveillance tapes they realized they had his face on camera. He was wearing a hood and seemed to be familiar where one of the cameras was because he dodged it but there was another one that he obviously didn't see because he looked right at it unaware.

Since I was then left without a vehicle, Russ and I went car shopping. I had planned to make a trip to Akron to help out with Mom and needed a vehicle to get there with. We found a Nissan Altima in Seafoam Gray (blue/gray) that we liked. It had a few bells and whistles on it so it was quite an upgrade for us. We were sure we'd never see Amber's car again and had figured we would be signing the Saturn over to her. About a month or more after the theft, she got a call from the Insurance Agent that they had found her car in Jacksonville, FL abandoned on the side of the road with the car keys in it. They put it on a truck and brought it to her. It reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke and had ashes all in it. Several of her items that were in her car (including her purse) were taken but they did leave a jacket that was worth something to her. They left her bible as well. (the most valuable thing in there). We gave Amber the choice of either keeping our Saturn and selling hers or keeping hers. She opted to keep her car because it had sentimental attachments to her. We drove out and picked up the Ion a few weeks later. It was quite a learning experience for her. It made me angry that someone thought it was a fun idea to joyride in a young girl's car. But in the end, I got a new car and we now have an extra vehicle to loan out as needed.

Let Me Tell You About My Grandkids - Part Two

In July of 2013 Hannah called to tell us that she and Dantrell were expecting their first child. I was so thrilled because I knew that as the Mom of the babies' Mom, I would get to be more involved in the whole event. It was so much fun going through this with her and feeling more a part of the entire pregnancy and birth. We found out in the fall that they were having a boy and they picked the name Brayden. The middle name wasn't decided until right before he was born. I told Hannah and Russ and I would get the furniture and bedding for his room as our gift to her. I found a bed and dresser I liked at IKEA and she was thrilled with it when I sent pictures. She wanted black furniture but all the main stores seemed to carry only dark browns. We looked at pre-made bedding sets with her and nothing seemed to grab her as what she wanted for his room. I asked Kelly Farmer if she would sew her bedding items for us and she was excited about it. We made a few trips to fabric stores sending Hannah pictures of different color combinations. She finally settled on yellow and gray chevrons and giraffes as the motif for decorations. I found a mobile at a thrift store and Kelly recovered it with one of the fabrics and hung giraffes from it. She made bumpers, a blanket, curtains and spit rags and bibs. She covered baskets with the fabric too. Hannah painted some pictures for the wall and she and I did some name pictures. I loved the way it all came together.

She was due on February 24 but I was sure she would go early so I drove to NC the first week of February to be there when he arrived. She was worried she would go into labor and I wouldn't be there so I wanted to reassure her by coming early. We had fun shopping for clothes for him and getting everything washed and ready. By the second week I think she was ready to be done so we started walking and eating pineapple and trying all the suggestions online for inducing labor. We started seeing her first real contractions on Saturday, Feb. 8 and then on Sunday we officially got her labor going. The hospital was maddening and didn't want her to come in too soon. Since it was her first child they expected her to be in labor for awhile. I timed contractions for awhile and then eventually overruled them and told them we were coming in. It was a good thing I did because she went fast. By 9:14 a.m. he was here...all 7 lbs and 4 ozs of cuteness. She had intended to have an epidural but she ended up doing a natural birth because it all went so fast. Brayden Xavier Hunt arrived on February 10. Aunt Amber arrived just in time to see him minutes after birth. It was love at first sight for all of us. Such a cute little one he is.

Hannah embraced Motherhood and was in awe of her new son. She grew up right before my eyes that day as she conquered several of her biggest fears. I was so proud of the way she fought through the natural birth and breast-feeding trials. She found strength she didn't know she had. She and Dantrell both were eager to learn how to care for baby Brayden and I spent another week and a half with them teaching them the ropes. Brayden and I bonded in those two weeks and it was hard to leave him. He is now almost six months old and cute as can be. He is one of the happiest babies I've seen in awhile. It doesn't take much to get him giggling and he loved to have fun. I'll end this post with a few of my favorite Brayden pictures.

Update on Life Since my Last Post

As you can see it's been quite awhile since I've written on here. I always have good intentions to keep up with this and then life gets in the way. So much has happened since 2012 Christmas so I thought it was about time I updated my blog with some of the highlights and pictures.

First, the blog definitely needs some updated pictures of my grandkids. Liam is now three and Ryan is almost 2. They are both talking up a storm and cute as can be. Their favorite thing right now is Disney's "Cars" movie and especially Lightning McQueen. They own just about ever car from that movie and carry them with them everywhere. They even sleep with them sometimes. Cory and family moved to a house owned by Stephanie's Dad this summer and the boys now have more room to run and play. They love to be read to and Nana and Papa try to keep them stocked with books to read whenever we visit. Love these boys and wish they lived closer. In October they hope to welcome their new baby sister, Kinley Lynn to the family. I think it would be nice if she were born on my birthday but we'll see if that happens or not. Kinley is a name that they've had picked out for years and Lynn is Stephanie's middle name. I'm sure she will be the cutest baby girl we've ever seen. (just a little biased when it comes to grandkids)

 While we were in Colorado in May, we had a gender reveal party with them after they'd gone for a reveal ultrasound. Stephanie bought a cake with a pink icing center and let Russ and I cut into it for the reveal to us. I started crying, of course, because I'm a sap at heart. I know Stephanie has wanted a girl from the beginning and I was happy she gets to experience raising a girl and I cried because I was happy to  have my first granddaughter. I haven't been able to shop in the pink aisles for years so that's pretty exciting for me too. I can't wait to meet her in October. Steph has been having fun decorating in pink and buying new outfits when she sees them on sale. I'll end this post with a few of my favorite pictures of my Barnhart boys.

Holidays 2012

It's hard to believe that January is almost over and I'm just now writing about the holidays. I guess it's taken me this long to recover. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it at least. It took me several weeks to get all the pictures edited and ready for facebook after about two weeks of downtime with my back. It was worth every bit of back pain to have my grandbabies in my arms for a whole week.

This Mom was working overtime this holiday season with a smile plastered on her face because she had the entire family home together. I was determined that I would not give a single gift card this year but would instead shop for each person with intention and attention to what they like. I think I did pretty well since only one person needed to return some things. Out of 8 people that I shopped for that's not too bad.  I had all the shopping done and wrapped before Hannah and Dantrell arrived. Russ was traveling two weeks in December so I knew it would be up to me to do the santa job this year. (of course it's that way most years). We had a wonderful 29th anniversary. We had dinner at the Village Cafe and exchanged gifts there. He gave me a new watch and I replaced his bracelet from 25th anniversary that he lost.

Cory and Stephanie and the boys arrived on Christmas Eve and we had to go in two cars to pick them up. I had also rounded up car seats and beds and baby items before they got here so the boys would feel right at home. I made Pulled Pork BBQ for dinner and then we took Liam in the car to see the Christmas lights. It was so much fun watching the wonder in his eyes. He loved them. I gave everyone Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve. We slept in on Christmas Day and had to wait for everyone to get up to open presents. I made the traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  After presents were opened I spent the morning in the kitchen making Christmas dinner of Ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, mac and cheese, homemade rolls and corn. I taught Stephanie how to make homemade rolls and she made one batch herself.

We played all our Christmas games and Russ and the kids went to see the Hobbit. We had family portraits taken at JC Penneys as well as did some informal ones in the back yard. I enjoyed my morning breakfasts with Liam. He would chatter at me like a real conversation but I had no clue what he was saying. I would hear a lot of "so's" and "yeah's" mixed in there. We did a lot of singing together as well. I taught him the song "Twinkle Twinkle" and he loved the "up above the world so high" part and kept going around singing that. I gave him one of Cory's favorite books for Christmas...Over in the Meadow... and we read it almost every day and he loved it like his daddy did. We counted the animals and looked at all the pictures. They say they have to read it to him everyday now. He's a smart kid and eager to learn. Loved my snuggles with him, all the hugs he gave and even holding him while he slept.  Ryan was fun to hold and snuggle as well. I loved feeding and holding him and watching him sleep. He's starting to get more smiley now and seemed to enjoy looking at books with me too. It's always hard to say goodbye to them because I know they will change so much before our next visit.

I love my family and love having them near. It's something I resigned myself to when we started making so many moves that our kids will all probably live away from us. I cherish these times when we can all be together because I know that they will be fewer and farther apart. Having them home with laughter in the house brings a smile to my heart every time. So thankful for a wonderful holiday spent with family.

The Big 53 Challenge

Each year as I approach my birthday I set up a challenge for my year ahead. On my 52nd birthday I had a 52@52 challenge which consisted of a list of 52 things to do while I'm 52. I had fun trying to keep up with each item but as expected I didn't get everything completed.

In October I welcomed my 53rd birthday and with that started a new challenge for the year. This year I've decided to set challenges based on the numbers 5 and 3. I'm repeating a few of the challenges I did at 52 because they were quite fun and something I'd like to repeat. I plan to do five "53" lists and three bigger goals for the year. Each of the 53 lists have a five and three stipulation on them. First I will read 53 books this year; five of these have to be non-fiction and 3 have to have been written before I was born (anything written before 1959). As was my rule last year, 53 chapters from the bible will equal 1 book. I was glad to have that rule last year because it helped me form a good bible reading habit as well as took the guilt away from reading fiction if I am also spending equal time in bible reading. Second I will try 53 new recipes; five have to be soups and three have to be appetizers. I totally enjoyed all the new recipes I tried last year and so I am also repeating this challenge again. I picked soups and appetizers for my 5 and 3 because these areas are thinner in my cookbook. Third I will do 53 scrapbook pages. I have so many supplies and a ton of pictures to scrap and it's about time I get my focus back onto my favorite hobby and spend less time playing on the computer. Five of these pages have to be heritage pages and three have to be digital pages.  Fourth I plan to send 53 pieces of happy mail. I love getting letters and mail and so it will be my goal to start a letter writing habit again and concentrate on more fun packages for my grandsons and kids. Five of the 53 have to be packages and three have to be to someone local.  The fifth challenge is to try 53 new things; five have to be to new places and three have to challenge my comfort zone (like rock climbing did last year). This completes my list of five 53's.

For my three bigger goals I plan to read the bible through from where I left off last year and complete the New Testament again. Second I plan to complete one theme scrapbook from start to finish. I'm thinking either a Japan album or our New England trip. And the third goal is to make five things with a needle....either crochet, knit, embroider or sew and fill three journals with writing or artwork (art journal).  I also plan to complete one smash book to commemorate the year. The plan is more doable than last years was so I hope I can complete it all. I've already bought yarn to start an afghan with and have a few cross-stitch kits to start working on. Reading is always a part of my life as is cooking so those 53 lists should fill up quickly. Setting goals for myself helps to keep me focused on my year ahead and it keeps me busy. I highly recommend the birthday goal plan for all. The years start meshing together and if you're not careful you'll forget to enjoy your time here. Make a plan and get to work. Having fun in my 50's is the way to go.

Reflections on 52 Things

My 53rd year is coming to a close and my 53rd birthday will arrive in October. As I hit the 52nd birthday I made a list of 52 things to accomplish at 52. I knew that I would most likely not finish all of them because life tends to get in the way sometimes with the best laid plans.....but.....I wanted to challenge myself to have a plan...something to do....to be focused on the year rather than watching it rush by like many others and wondering what I did. I decided to start the challenge on October 1 of 2011 and go until my birthday in October of 2012 so I've almost hit the full year mark.

I started with a journal that I recorded all the items that had "52" in them and did a page for each numbering the pages to 52. Some of them I recorded faithfully like the books I was reading and others I quit writing down. This was partly due to the fact that as I started writing them, it felt like I was forcing them more just to write them down such as "do 52 things to show love to Russ and the kids".  Some of them were such random things which in my mind counted but looked rather contrived when recorded. So I quit recording those. Others like "watch 52 sunrises" were hit and miss because I wouldn't always write down every time I saw a sunrise or sunset. So in looking at my journal it may seem empty on some pages where I actually did a lot. It was quite fun though on the ones that I have been recording to see the pages fill up. I've completely finished reading the 52 books and writing the 52 journal entries. I'm almost done with 52 new recipes. It was motivating to see those lists fill up.

What have I learned? For one thing, having goals keeps me moving forward. There were times when I could have very easily last days of mindlessness on the computer but I would tell myself that I needed to finish my book so I didn't get behind.  Another thing I learned was that new habits can be formed by setting goals. I started the challenge with the goal to read 52 books. I made a rule along with that goal that 52 chapters in the bible would count as 1 book. I wanted to be reading my bible more and I knew that with a goal of 52 books I would end up putting casual reading over my bible reading. I decided that every morning with my breakfast, I would read my bible with a goal to read it entirely all the way through. I kept a pen with me while reading to find verses to underline that stood out to me in the chapters. I was amazed at how fast I was making my way through the bible. I would sometimes sit and read 10 chapters at a time. I gradually started seeing a habit forming to where I wanted to make sure I had my bible on trips with me so I wouldn't miss any days of reading. Now, I feel incomplete if I start my day without reading.

I've gone for an entire year without a cola and I really haven't missed them at all. I will probably allow myself to have them occasionally after my birthday but I think I will be fine without them. I went rock climbing with the kids and had a great time doing it. I hosted a Japanese dinner, visited two new states, and found many new recipes that will be family favorites for many years ahead.  I've written more letters, blogged more, journaled more and took more pictures. All have been items on which I needed to put more focus. I concentrated on learning new things and trying new things and forming good habits for things I really want to do more of.

I'm not sure yet what I will do for my 54th year. I'm leaning towards just a life at 53 smashbook in which I will post pictures, ticket stubs and record all the little things in life. I may set a small list of goals and continue pursuing the goals I accomplished this year with more writing, reading and focus on others. I'd highly recommend giving yourself a birthday goal once in awhile and see what you can accomplish. Who knows, I might just try again at 62.

You can see the "52" lists and blog I kept to record the year here

...Another Little Man in My Life

Our lives were blessed with a second grandson, Mr. Ryan Clinton Barnhart on August 9, 2012. Cory woke me up with a phone call that they had gone to the hospital because Stephanie was in labor. We talked briefly and then he texted me about an hour later that she was progressing quickly. I barely had time to get dressed and he was here.  He didn't want to waste any time getting here. Her labor ended up being about 5 hours and she had a very quick recovery time. I didn't get to meet my newest love until he was two weeks old.  I made a ten day trip to Colorado on August 21 and stayed with them to help out with both boys and help to ease her into parenting two little guys. Everyone ended up sick the first week I was there and Liam was cutting his two upper front teeth so I had a busy week trying to keep noses wiped and everyone eating well.

Ryan is such a good baby.  Very calm and content. Rarely cries and has no problem burping after meals.  The first week went pretty smoothly and then he began throwing up with just about every feeding.  We tried everything we could to help him keep his food down from feeding smaller amounts at a time, burping more frequently and changing formulas. Nothing seemed to work and each day he was vomiting more frequently. I had to leave them on September 1 but they gave me regular reports that he wasn't urinating or having bowel movements. They finally took him to the emergency room early this morning and they found that he had a condition called Pyloric Stenosis. It's basically a blockage in the stomach flap that leads to the intestines (or something like that). He had to have surgery yesterday afternoon and is spending the night in the hospital recovering. I know it was a rough day for Cory and Stephanie watching their little man with IV's and wheeled off to surgery. I am thankful to God for his watchful care over Ryan and am happy to report that the surgery was a success and he will be back to normal soon. Big brother Liam isn't sure what to think of his new baby brother who is capturing some of Mom and Dad's attention away.  He's doing well with the adjustment though and I'm sure before too long they will be good buddies.  Welcome to our world Baby Ryan and may your recovery from surgery be speedy and painfree.

Catching Up Once Again

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been 8 months since I've updated this blog. I've been trying to concentrate on journal writing this year so my blogs have suffered as a result of that.

This year has been a very eventful year and so I will try to do a quick update with pictures.  Just last week my grandson turned one and decided to start walking the evening before his birthday.  Liam is such a beautiful baby.  I love his blue eyes and dimples.  He makes me smile everytime I see him because it is like looking at a carbon copy of his daddy when he was a baby.  I wasn't able to be there for his birthday party because of a business trip with my husband but we plan to celebrate his 14 month birthday with him in July. We will have our own little party when we arrive.  I did get to skype with him the day after his birthday and watch him walk around with all his new skills.  He's at such a cute stage right now with all the learning he is doing.

In the first of the year I was in full wedding planning mode.  Hannah got engaged the first week of January when we went to Dantrell's boot camp graduation. Because the military has their own time schedules, we had to wait for them to tell us when we could hold the wedding so that gave me about a month to plan the whole event.  We found her dress at the $99 David's Bridal sale and were very excited about that.  I did all the flowers for the wedding and did her invitations myself as well.  We held the wedding at a place called Pristine Chapel.  It was an all-inclusive place and we could select the services we wanted to pay for.  This picture was taken by their resident photographer, Joanna Henderson. We paid her to take the ceremony pictures and we had about five other cameras there taking pictures of everything else.  The wedding turned out beautifully and I shed a few tears as I watched her daddy walk her down the aisle.  He was brave until he got seated and then he broke down with a few tears as well.  She is our baby girl and it was hard to let her go but I think she found a good man who will cherish her and take good care of her.  A week after the wedding we were packing up their furniture into a Ryder truck and watched them drive away to their new home in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  I didn't think it would hit me so hard to have her move away but I sure do miss my little girl coming in for late night talks and leaving me little messes to clean up in the kitchen.

In April Russ and I took our annual trip to Jekyll Island...one of our favorite beaches in Georgia.  We always rent a cottage and Russ takes his bike along to do some riding.  I enjoy the time on the beach to read and write and just relax. We also took a long weekend trip to Jacksonville, Florida to enjoy some of our free hotel points.  We took another trip to Jacksonville this month for a 10 day contract negotiation conference Russ had to attend.  We leave this week for another business trip to Kentucky and then I will make my first visit to Hannah's new home in North Carolina so I can do a car exchange.  I've been driving her lime green VW bug and they've had my car until they could get another vehicle.  She didn't want to ruin his "man-points" on his first days at the new job by making him drive a lime green beetle to work.  They have purchased a car for him now and I will soon be heading that way to make the exchange.