Thursday Update on Tommy

Michael left bright and early this morning to head to Little Rock to help with getting his Dad home today.  His ortho doctor said he would be fine to go home but after Michael headed over they found out that another doctor had to "officially" release him after reviewing his blood work, etc.  So, they started the journey home around 2:30 p.m. or so.  I haven't heard many details yet but it sounds like the move from his hospital bed to his wheelchair was not pleasant and he was in a lot of pain.  I worry about what he's going to have to go through when he gets home and moves from his wheelchair to his bed at home.  Apparently during the therapy yesterday 4 people tried to move him to his wheelchair and they dropped him and he got his knee caught up in his chair which set him back some on pain.  So, please continue to keep them all in your prayers, especially when they get home.

Trampoline & Hummingbirds

Our sweet friends, Trish & Roger, gave us their trampoline since they are moving in a few weeks (which is quite the bummer for us). So the girls have been jumping on it in the evenings since it's been way too hot during the days. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Also, we have hummingbirds!! This is the second time I've put out the hummingbird feeder this summer. The first time I put it out in early June and Roger told us that the hummingbirds don't really come out until July so I tried again yesterday and we had three fighting over it today. I didn't have my zoom lens on the camera so the little dot you see by the feeder is the hummingbird.

Tuesday Tommy Update

From my understanding, the ortho doctor did some sort of a laproscopic (sp?) procedure on Tommy's hip and it doesn't appear to be out of socket. He could slide the hip back and forth a little but the doctor said it's probably been like that for a long time and that's not what's causing the pain. He said that Tommy needs to stay admitted at the hospital for a few more days so they can watch it and see if it improves. According to Michael he is still in a lot of pain so pray that the pain medicine starts working a little more effectively. I believe Michael is coming home this evening since there's not going to be a surgery. I know Patty is tired so please pray for her as well. Michael has offered to stay overnight with Tommy but she wants to be the one that stays with him.

Zach's surgery this morning also went well. He now has tubes in his ears so hopefully he'll be ear infection free in the future.

Thank you for your prayers!

Meredith's Home and Update on Tommy

Meredith came home today after having a fabulous time at my parents' house. She got to spend a lot of time with Aunt Staci, Aunt Carrie and Carlee and Cydnee which she loved too. The all went swimming at Carrie's parents' house one day and then they headed over to Carrie's parents' feed store where they got to pet a lot of little animals. Quite the day they had, that's for sure. Thank you Aunt Carrie!

Well, Tommy, Michael's dad, headed over to Little Rock this evening so he can have surgery on his hip in the morning. I guess the doctor finally decided that his hip was really out of socket and decided that his ortho doctor that did his hip replacement in Little Rock would be the better choice to do it (ya think?). Tommy wasn't keen on the idea of riding over in an ambulance so he struggled and sat in his wheelchair while Michael drove his dad's minivan to the new hospital. Patty then drove over a little later after she gathered some stuff together at home and then drove my van there as well. Michael will return tomorrow after the surgery. In the meantime, my nephew Zachary, is having tubes put in his ears bright and early in the morning so big brother Will is staying here for the night so he doesn't have to get up at 5 a.m. I sure hope they all sleep good tonight!

Anyway, please keep everyone in your prayers as we go through this busy time.

Meredith gone to grandparents' house

I met my Dad and Grandmother in Gore, OK (the halfway point) on Thursday and sent Meredith with them to spend a few nights and boy was she looking forward to it. Whenever she can fit me in her busy schedule to talk to me on the phone it sounds like she's having a super time and is in no hurry to come home. In turn, I think Alli really misses her big sister to play with, however, I think she's enjoying the one on one time too. It's amazing how much easier it is to take one to the grocery store instead of two. Today Alli and I got a snowcone after we went to the store and she was thrilled with that as well. I do miss my little Meredith though, that's for sure.

For those of you that don't already know, Michael's dad, Tommy, is in the hospital due to a fall he had on Wednesday afternoon. His first set of xrays he had taken on Wednesday evening indicated he had popped his hip out of joint. So, on Thursday, his assigned ortho doctor said he wasn't sure if it was out of joint or not and he wanted to compare his current xrays with past xrays he has had taken to make sure it was out before they would do any surgery (they were unable to pop it back in manually). Well, after the doctor found time in his busy schedule to come by on Thursday afternoon he said he hadn't had time to get the xrays and he would do it on Friday. Well, then today the doctor found time to come in at the end of the day and said that Cooper Clinic sent him his MRI records instead of the xrays and since they were already closed he would have to wait until Monday. Is that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? So, I guess Tommy is just supposed to hang out in the hospital until Monday to see if his hip is really out of socket or not. Maybe then when the xrays come in the doctor can find time in his busy schedule to possibly do something about it to help him feel better. Don't you just love healthcare? As you can tell, my attitude isn't too great about it. So, please keep Tommy in your prayers as he goes through this ordeal. (What's sad is that I've left out a lot about this doctor's bedside manner as well.) I'll keep you all posted.

Alli's first birthday cake video

For the last few days I have been trying to transfer our family video from my video camera to my computer so I can merge several together and put them on DVD for storage.  My Mac has this awesome program called iMovie which makes this fairly easy which I appreciate.  Anyway, as I was going through our old movie I ran across this one with Alli eating her cake and her first birthday party.  I truly am still amazed at it.  I haven't been to many one year birthday party where the birthday child can put away the cake like my sweet daughter Alli.  Let me tell ya, she is just like her mama when it comes to cake (preferable white, not chocolate).  If you have time you should watch it and be amazed as well.  When you click on it the video below I think you can fast forward through it by dragging the button to make it go faster.  As I go through these home videos it just amazes me how these little ones can learn and change so much in such a short amount of time.

11 Years, Wow.

 I know it's hard to believe but Michael and I have been married 11 years as of today.  We celebrated last night by going to Rogers and eating at Ruth's Chris which is a delicious steak house and then we hit a movie afterwards.  The movie wasn't very good and was disturbing.  That's what happens when you go to a theatre and have no idea what movie to see or anything about any of the movies playing.  The movie was titled "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie and I wouldn't recommend it.  We then stayed at the Embassy Suites and went to PF Changs for lunch today and hit the sales at Belks.  I love shopping (unfortunately)!   It's been a great 11 years with Michael and I look forward to many more to come. 

Tennis Camp

Meredith has really been enjoying tennis camp this summer. I'm really hoping to have a tennis partner soon. It's still tough for her to get the ball over the net from the baseline (that's a long way for a little one) but with practice she'll get it soon. Here are some sweet pics of her.

Nightline Tonight

I was informed last night that Good Morning America and Nightline are having specials regarding DeGeorge Syndrome and the special doctor at Duke that does the thymus glands transplants. If you recall, my friend, Chairee Messenger from church, has a baby girl, Anelise, that was born with this disease. She is at Duke right now awaiting a transplant which is super. I would encourage all of you to watch Nightline tonight to see how wonderful this transplant is. I already watch the clip on GMA this morning and I learned that when babies with just heart problems have heart surgeries the doctors often just throw the thymus gland away because it is has already done its job and is no longer needed. So, now, they just save these thymus glands and send them to Duke for these babies with no immune system to have them transplanted into their little bodies. Isn't that wonderful? Please keep this sweet family in your prayers.

Here's a link to the website:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5377504&page=1

Facebook. etc.

Well, I was informed by my friend at church that many of our mutual friends from Sunday School had Facebook accounts (not to mention my little sis) so I decided to join. Let me tell you, there's a lot of people out there in Facebook world. I must say I still enjoying blogging and looking at friends' blogs better than Facebook but it's a good way to find old friends out there in cyberspace world that you've lost track of. The advantage of Facebook over MySpace is that you people have to invite you to be their "friends" before you can look at their page. The con to this is that you can't snoop and look at people lives that you're just curious about but don't really want to commit to, but I know it is much better this way. It's amazing how many high school kids from our church have asked me to be their "friend" that don't even really know me. I discussed this with Melissa S. and we just thought the more friends the better the kids look no matter if it's an old lady with 2 kids. However, I know if they are asking me to be their friend on their site it means they have nothing to hide from an adult on their page which is quite refreshing to me and I'm sure to their parents as well. There's no doubt that if I had a pre-teen/teen and they were computer literate that I would also have an account on all of these types of websites and make sure my child made me a friend so I could make sure they were on the up and up. I feel it is vitally important for parents these days to keep up with technology and keep track of their kids web usage as well. There's too much danger out there not to. So, I guess Meredith and Alli better watch out for Mama as they get older!

I don't really have any recent pictures from this week. Meredith has had a couple of friends come over to play and we've gone to other friends' houses to hang out so it was a nice week. Here's some pictures of Meredith in gymnastics from the Spring.

I went to Little Rock for the day yesterday for a state PTA convention which was interesting. I can really see some areas that our little school can improve in as far as communication and getting parent involvement which is exciting. Now, if I'm just ready to put the work into it. It's easy to get ideas but difficult to actually put them to use, isn't it?

Anelise accepted to Duke!

I know some of you have been praying for my friend Chairee's baby girl, Anelise. Well, I have great news. They are on their way to Duke tomorrow for her life saving thymus gland transplant. Hallelujah! Please continue to keep them in your prayers for they have a long journey ahead of them. For those of you who don't know, Anelise was born on April 4 with DeGeorge Syndrome which is a very rare disease in which she was born with no thymus glands, which means she has no immune system. The only place in the world that does the thymus gland transplant is Duke University in North Carolina. I'll keep you posted.

Fourth of July at Aunt Nancy's & Uncle Jimmy's

Here's a slide show of pictures I took during our 4th of July celebration.  I hope you enjoy!  I believe if you just click on the slideshow you can look at the pictures bigger.  If you would like any copies of these pictures, please let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

American Girl Movie

On Friday mid-day me, the girls, my mom, Aunt Staci, Aunt Carrie and Carlee all headed to the movie theatre to catch the American Girl movie.  I was just excited to be able to see a G rated movie that wasn't animated.  It was a really cute movie and Meredith especially enjoyed it.  I did think it was a little slow in the beginning so it didn't hold Alli's interest too well, but hey, she's just 3 so I knew what to expect.  However, Aunt Carrie's stash of candy helped keep her interest until it picked up a little in the second half of the movie.  I really thought it was important for our family to support this movie so the big movie companies would, hopefully, continue to put out movies such as this.  The movie was set in the Depression and it is from a 10 year old girl's viewpoint of the era.  The excitement comes when Kit (the 10 year old girl) must solve the mystery of who is stole her mother's money.  I would encourage anyone with girls about 4 or 5 years up to go see it!  

Welcome Harriet the Mouse, I mean Hamster!

I made a quick jaunt to Broken Arrow on Wednesday to celebrate Independence Day with my family this year and we came back Friday night after the fireworks festivities.  On Wednesday me and the girls were introduced to Aunt Staci's new pet, Harriet the Hamster.  We've come a long way from feeding the mice to the snakes at the Nature Center to petting one.  I think Staci surprised my parents last week with her new pet as well.  She is very cute and sweet and doesn't have the mousey tail (aren't you glad Melisa Y?).  She has a very pink plastic cage and likes to bury herself in her bedding in her igloo house.  The girls were thrilled with the little thing and I was scared for its little life while the girls fought over holding her.  She did survive and I think spent most of the time hiding while we were there.  I'll post some picture from our 4th of July in the next post.