This is from Read’s blog:
she has NOT had a stroke,
apparently it was an aneurysm. She is also hydrocyphalic. So that means that in every area of her brain is flooded with both blood and water.
Surgery is not an option, so they are treating it with medicine. The doctor says that she may walk out of here in 5 days or she may have another one and that may be the end of it all.
more to come as it develops.
Jeremy’s Grandma had a stroke this morning. I don’t quite know all the details, but she is very confused and was having trouble with her right leg. I know the family would appreciate the prayers. My kids are very close to Grandma Anna because of we lived with his parents for a few years and she lives there too.
I didn’t realize how many photos I had on my camera. The kids had a good amount they had taken on there. I had over 90 on there. I edited a good amount of the ones I took and posted them on my Flickr. Check out the CSI: Lego set while there. Jeremy and I worked hard on those when we went to my aunt and uncle’s house last month. There are pictures from the Harvest Festival that was at our church on Halloween, a series of close-ups of eyes (James refused to participate in this), and the pictures from our daytrip into Chicago. Oh, and Christine with her new glasses.
That happened while I was computerless.
AnnaBeth and Christine had eye dr appointments in late October and Christine ended up with glasses. She looks really cute. I was really impressed with the office and all the different tests they did and how great they were with the kids. AnnaBeth is going back in a few weeks to see a pediatric eye dr about the one eye lid that droops when she is tired and if it is related to a small amount of lazy eye or if it might be something else. I’ve talked to different drs about it over the years, but not a single one took me seriously until now.
James and I also went to the eye dr in mid-November. I’m getting new glasses. (Yay! These ones are worn out and rubbing my nose raw on one side.) They should be available any day now. I can’t wait to get them. James has some astigmatism, but not enough to worry about. The dr is worried about him in another way though. She really studied the back of his eyes for a while after she got his pupils dilated, then she sent him out of the room for a little while. She said his retinas are extremely big and she’s never seen any like them in a child his age. When she’s seen retinas this big is usually in older people as an early sign of glaucoma. She is concerned about James’s eyes and thinks he may be in that early stage. It doesn’t affect his eyesight at the moment, but she wants to keep tabs on him. We are just praying because we know God is capable of healing anything.
Jeremy and I got a memory foam mattress. Ahhhhhhhh! My back felt so much better after a few days of sleeping on it. The first two nights, I woke up sore because my muscles relaxed and let me feel the soreness from being so tense and tight, but after another two nights, I was feeling so good. We slept on the couch bed at Jeremy’s parents house this last weekend, so my back was sore again, but it will be okay in another night or two.
On the way to Ikea on the Monday before Thanksgiving, we were close to being in a bad wreck. A big truck coming the opposite direction came over the line a bit and the car that was in the left lane on my side hit his mirror on the truck and tried to swerve away. It was raining and he spun out. The car in the right lane (2 in front of me) hit his front end as it came in front of them and spun him the opposite way around and hit their back. The car in front of me swerved to miss them and jumped the sidewalk. I was very happy to find no pedestrians were there as there is usually many people walking around that area, no matter what the weather. God was looking out for them. I hit my brakes and felt them lock up, so I eased off and hit them again and turned into the parking lot that was right there. I wrote out my phone number and gave it to the police in case they needed it for an eyewitness account, but told them I couldn’t stay since I had a van full of children and they were all shook up a lot already and I didn’t want them seeing the people taken out of the cars and put into the ambulances. I did see that there were two people who were badly hurt when I went up to give them my phone number. The man in the first car was stuck in his vehicle and the person in the front passenger seat of the second car hadn’t been wearing a seat belt and had hit the windshield. She was conscious, but not coherent. There was also a mom and baby in the back seat of the second car and the mom was so upset because she wasn’t allowed to take her baby out of the carseat to comfort him, but they wanted to check him out to make sure he hadn’t been hurt before that. I did well with what I had seen at first because I had my friend, Sarah, with me and I didn’t want the kids to see me upset, but it really hit me later when it was just Jeremy and I talking. I had a pretty good cry and let the stress of it out.
Also, I got an e-mail from my mom that said that my Grandma has had some bad days lately when my aunt was up there. Keep praying for my mom’s family. I know this is hard on all of us.
There you go. I think I have gotten you all caught up now.
It was a good time. I enjoyed seeing friends from our previous church this morning. They let me sit and sing in the choir since there were no specials they were doing. I’ve missed it quite a bit. I finally got to see and hold the newest baby (born in August) down there. He was so sweet and was cooing and smiling at me then he gave me a nice burp all over the side of my shirt. It’s been a few years since I’ve had one of those, but it was okay. I just laughed and got a wipey to clean it off.
Jason took family pictures after church. I think they will turn out really good.
We had lunch at McDs before heading back up here. It was just raining most of the way, but just before we hit Kankakee, we noticed it was sleeting and then soon afterwards, it was a mixture of sleet and snow. I am nervous driving in that, so I pulled over and switched to the passenger seat so Jeremy could take over. He got us home safely and to our church for evening service.
Ooooo, I hear some little girls. I need to go get them settled down, so they fall asleep. I can’t wait to read about how your holidays went.
Jeremy’s aunt, uncle, and cousin came down, so we’ve had a lot of time talking and visiting. It’s nice to just relax and enjoy talking to others. I went out with a friend last night and we enjoyed giggling a lot. It’s been a great time.
Give God the thanks and glory for all He has given to you. I will be thanking Him for all of you today, my real life friends and family, as well as those I’ve never met, but who have been so supportive and wonderful to me throughout the years. Also, any of you who are new this year will be on my mind as well. I’m so glad I’ve found your friendship and look forward to getting to know you better.
We’re heading down to Jeremy’s parents’ house for the holiday. I look forward to some good fellowship time.
I hope this isn’t too fragmented.
On October 31, our church had a Harvest Festival. Jeremy had offered to help, but he had some unexpected work come up and had to stay late at the office. Around 2:00 pm, the kids and I went to Walmart and raided the 25 cent cart of all the parts of costumes that had been seperated from the rest of the outfit. I got 3 hats, a cape, 2 sets of wings, a skirt, and a little Bo Peep dress for Noelle. I also got some supplies to sew stuff together if needed. The kids enjoyed putting them together to make costumes for themselves. Amie was a fairy, James was “The Little Old Man” (a fictional character from stories that Jeremy tells), Christine was a cowgirl, AnnaBeth wore all black with a gold skirt and hat on, and Noelle was Little Bo Peep. The kids and I showed up at the church at 3:30 pm to help set up. We did some cooking and set up games and the kids tested them. We didn’t leave until 8:00 pm. The Festival was from 5 – 7 and then the older two had Praise Dance Practice afterwards while I helped clean up. The kids had a lot of fun.
Jeremy’s birthday was on the 14th. It was a quiet day. He’s not much into having a lot made of his birthday. He’d rather it pass without anything except maybe a few cards and some extra kisses from me. We went out to eat the day afterward (payday, had to wait.)
Why, oh why is my mind going blank?
I took the two little girls to Family Christian Bookstore to see “A WowieBOZowie Christmas” and both ended up winning something. Noelle won a Boz CD and AnnaBeth won the DVD of the movie. It was my first time seeing a Boz movie. I heard from another mother that most of them are like having a Christian Barney, though a bit easier on the eyes. After listening to Noelle’s CD, I believe it. The songs have the same kind of sound to them and are about things like colors, shapes, and brushing your teeth. The Christmas DVD was good though, so I don’t mind having it around.
One Saturday, I promised Christine that I’d do something special with her. We went and saw the movie, “The Gameplan”. It was a great movie. We both enjoyed it a lot. We also went to Target to get a few things that we needed.
On another day, we traveled up to the Bolingbroke Ikea store because we’d seen a sale for bunkbeds there. It was the first time we’d been to that store and we were blown away. We found all kinds of things there. It was sinful. LOL I want, want, want. The prices are decent and if we do okay, we can buy some things from there one at a time. James found a loft bed he wants, so when Noelle is out of the toddler bed and into a twin size, we’re probably going to try and get it for him. He also wants a desk from there, so he can do his schoolwork in the privacy of his room. We’re thinking on that since he seems to go quicker with his math when he’s left alone. It was a lot of fun, plus they had “passports” for the kids to get stamped at four certain places in the store and after checking out, they got free ice cream (or a cinnamon roll in James’ case). We got the bunkbeds, a new small cooking pot (my old cheap one had gotten rusty, so we’d thrown it out), hot pads, and a stool for Noelle to get to the potty or sink. I was so excited at this find that I told a friend of mine and she came up to visit this last Monday and we headed over there. I got a few more kitchen items that I needed and enjoyed showing her some of the things we are hoping to buy when we can.
Now for today!! It was “The Great Baking Day”! Each of the kids picked out some kid of sweet thing they wanted to make and we headed out to the grocery store for supplies in the morning. We came home, ate lunch, and started baking (or non-baking considering some of the sweeties we made.) James made 4 pumpkin pies (2 to take with us down to Jeremy’s parents’ house tomorrow.) Amie made a no bake chocolate cheesecake mousse pie. Christine made chocolate chip cookies (actually, she just took the dough out of a container and put them on cookie sheets. I didn’t feel like I had the time to get the dough made in addition to everything else today.) AnnaBeth used a simple recipe to make chocolate peanut butter fudge and Noelle helped spoon out no bake cookies. I guess only James and Christine actually baked. I also baked some frozen pizzas for dinner. Maybe I should change the name of what I call this day. I have another one coming up just before Christmas. The great thing was that everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed getting messy and licking fingers. I have dishpan hands from having to wash dishes over and over that had to be used for multiple recipes, but I had so much fun. I always enjoy doing this and that is why I readily agree to bring the desserts.
There you all have it. The last three weeks summed up as quickly as possible.
It’s back!
Before I update you all, which will probably be tomorrow night since I’m worn out today and have a bit of baking to do during the day tomorrow, I will tell you all a funny that happened today which I twittered to be reminded about.
James has been coming up with characters which he makes stories about. He has a funny one and an animal hero one. I thought that his hero one was silly too and he asked us to come up with a flying bird hero. I suggested quail, pigeon, bluebird, and robin. Amie started giggling and then blurted out, “Healing Vulture!!” which set me off into giggles as well. Jeremy made it worse when he pretended to be the bird. “Ah, look, fresh carnage below, it’s mealtime!” He flies on down and settles on a limb. Unfortunately, his super-power kicks in. “Ah, man!!! I never get to eat the good stuff.”
Amie has been studying some zoology in her science book and was able to come up with this silly thing from that. See, studying that stuff can come in really handy when trying to figure out a super-hero.
Oh, and for those wondering. He was wanting it a bit more serious, so he picked “Strong Eagle.” He has Wonder Cat, Super Dog, Speedy Elephant, and Fire Tiger as well.
Best Buy called to ask for our password, so they could log on and test our computer. Jeremy is expecting it back again sometime soon. I sure hope so. I’ve got a lot to catch up on since I’ve only had time to check e-mail and facebook lately. I want to find out what all is going on with my friends out there. I miss reading the blogs and my group. I am glad to get Xanga through my e-mail though since I learned that one of my friends there is having a baby girl after 3 boys. I can’t wait to be able to tell her congratulations.