it's SO good to be home!!!

After 8 days of no sleep, worrying about my baby, eating cafeteria food, and hearing alarms go off all day and night. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed! And I know Olivia's so glad to be home, too. She's not totally healed yet but we're getting there. The home health nurse came today to show me how to do her IV antibiotics which she'll be on for another week and a half. She still keeps getting occasional fevers so we have to continue to watch her and if things haven't improved (or God forbid get worse) we'll be going back up to Atlanta. I have been so immensely thankful for all of the prayers. Please continue to pray that her poor lung gets better.

I thought I'd share a few photos of our eventful week :) Here's her first night in the hospital here in town. Notice the red cheeks from her fever that kept spiking.

Poor girl, they had to poke her 3 times before getting the IV in cause her veins were just shot from being sick :( They gave her that little pink bear after getting her IV in.

The next day when the xrays & bloodwork came back worse, we took our first trip in an ambulance to Atlanta. That perked her up a bit!

Finally starting to feel a little bit better...

I have to say that everyone at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta were wonderful. They really made our stay much more tolerable. There were DVDs & books that we could "rent" for free, there were girls that came by daily with an art cart. When Olivia started feeling better she did a few arts & crafts with them. It was such a great hospital. I've been in several hospitals myself and this one was, by far, the best one.

And now Olivia has many stories to tell her friends....about her ambulance ride, her stay at the hospital, her many needle pokes, xrays and the CAT scan that she thought was pretty neat :)

I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with some scrappy stuff. It's been a while since I've posted that kind of stuff!! I worked on some Christmas things before Olivia got sick so I'll share those this week. 

on the mend

Well, it turned out that Olivia didn't need surgery. Her right lung is still pretty sick but she's slowly but surely getting better. Thankfully they were able to put in a PICC line so she hasn't had to get poked anymore (which she loves, let me tell ya!) It is looking like she might be able to come home tomorrow as long as they can get some home care set up for her. She'll be on IV antibiotics for probably another 2 weeks. It is still amazing to me that this all was a secondary infection from having the flu. It's common to get pneumonia (or "yamonia" as Olivia calls it!) from the flu but not quite this serious. We're still waiting for the results of her xray today so we're hoping it's a little better.

Thank you so much for your prayers. As worried as I was this week, the other families in this hospital were never far from my mind. A lot of families who won't have such an "easy" outcome. Please pray for them. It is so difficult to see your child in pain.

keep those prayers coming!

I have been SO uplifted by all of your prayers for my daughter. It's truly amazing just how many people are praying for her. We originally thought she'd be going into surgery today but the drs have decided to hold off for at least another day to see if the antibiotics can do their magic. Now that we've gotten some bloodwork back we know just what kind of bacteria it is and they've changed her meds so I'm praying that this might do the trick. However, the surgeons still may decide to take her in for surgery this weekend. As you can imagine I'm feverently praying that this will not happen. Please continue to pray for Olivia. Your prayers are working!!! 

in need of your prayers

I mentioned in my last post that we were at the ER on Sunday morning with my daughter. Yesterday we went and had another xray done and it showed no improvement so she was admitted to the hospital. Well, xrays this morning showed that it is actually getting worse and is now in her left lung as well. So she's being transferred up to Atlanta. 

I'm humbly asking for your prayers right now. 

Everyone Against Abortion Please Raise Your Hand

AMEN

prayers

Some of you may have noticed that I periodically change/add links on the right-hand side. You'll see them if you scroll down. I've also added a prayer list ~ those who are in need of your prayers. Please take a sec and click on the links, read the stories, and pray for the families in need. I believe prayer is very powerful. We may not always understand why we must take the road we're on. But I believe that not matter what our journey, God is always there each step of the way.

And if you find a blog/site that is in need of prayers, please forward it to me or comment so that I can add it to the list. I'm not stingy with my prayers...there's room for everyone :)

feeling better

Still feel a bit yucky physically, but mentally I'm back to normal. Well, I don't think anyone would call me "normal" but I'm back to my goofy self for the most part! I've spent the last few days praying a lot. Not just for myself, but for Parker, and Harper, and Brayden, and so many others. It's amazing how spending some time in prayer can release all of the bad stuff bouncing around in your brain. I have a renewed sense of happy and I can say for certainty that it is all because of Him.

This morning I got to sleep in a little. My sweet hubby (thanks sweetie!) took Olivia to school. He's not able to do that often, maybe a couple times a year, but when he does it's such a welcome break!! So Ben and I got up this morning and had some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Yep, that hit the spot!!

Oh, and speaking of food, I made some yummy pasta last night that I saw when watching the Food Network the other day. The best part? My kids ACTUALLY ate spinach!! Score 10 pts for the picky eaters team!!!

Even my husband, who claims to not like spinach, ate it. Although next time I'll cut the recipe in half cause it made a TON. And since I served it as a side dish to baked chicken we really didn't need this much pasta!! You can find the recipe here.

The good thing about being a bit down this week is that I managed to get some layouts done. Scrapbooking is *so* therapeutic for me. I can just sit in my room, enjoy looking at my photos and reliving the memories as I scrap.

____________________________________________________________________
Here's a few pages that I put together. The first one is my favorite. I managed to snap these photos while my son was eating a hot dog. I simply zoomed in on his face while he was eating and snapped away. He didn't even know I was taking pictures of him!

____________________________________________________________________
This layout is pretty self-explanatory. My kids *love* swimming in our pool. And it's a big production in this house getting everything ready to go swimming...right down to their gargles (what my kids call "goggles"). I don't correct them cause I love how they say it :)

____________________________________________________________________
And I scrapped some older photos. I had to scrap the photos I had cause my printer decided it didn't want to print very well this week. I think it's about ready to bite the dust. Kinda like my computer. My computer is 7 1/2 yrs old and my printer is 3 1/2 yrs old. We're hoping to get a new computer very soon. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

Anyway, this layout is from a visit to a local farm in Alabama that we went to in October '07. We were there for hours. The kids had *so* much fun!

____________________________________________________________________
Another layout from the same trip to the farm. Only this one will go in my son's album. This little pony was so cute and Ben was just in love with him. The pony kept trying to nibble his ear...or bite it off, I'm not quite sure! But it made for cute pictures!

____________________________________________________________________
I have a couple more that I'll share tomorrow. I've also been rearranging my albums and I'll share that soon, too. And maybe I'll even share some of my first-ever layouts. That should be good for a laugh or 2!!

one more thing for Parker

I've added a link to the right hand column that looks like this:

Click on it and head over to 5MSS and play some games. And every time you do a donation will be made to Parker's medical fund!

so many prayers

Can I get personal for a minute? You don't mind, right?? Do you ever feel like you have so many prayer requests that you can't keep them straight? It seems that as the weeks and months and years go by my prayer list gets longer and longer. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. I guess it's a good thing that I'm praying so much. But just when one item is checked off the list another one is quick to fill it's space. And then there's those things that are *always* on the list and never seem to go away. This is what I've been praying about a *lot* lately. I honestly can't even imagine a society where this would pass. It's not one I want to live in. But besides that there are so many people (including myself) that I pray for on a daily basis. As I sat in church today I had to say to God "ya know what, I'm sorry but I just can't remember everyone I'm supposed to pray for". Thankfully it doesn't matter, because He knows. He knows my innermost thoughts, wishes, dreams and fears. And He's there for all those who need Him. That's comforting, don't ya think? I know I find comfort in that. Even if it doesn't seem like He's answering my prayers. He's there.

prayers please

Yep, I'm asking them for little Parker again. It looks like he has a bowel obstruction from his surgery 2 months ago. And I know his family needs lots of prayers right now. Prayers that they can fix this problem without surgery...again. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I can't imagine having my little one go through what he's gone through. I've had bowel surgery. It's ROUGH. It's pure HELL. And I've also had what you would call "easy" surgeries, too so I know the difference. But the thing is, I went through my surgery at age 34. Parker is 4. Can't. Even. Imagine.

So please say some prayers for him. He needs them. And his family.

Thanks :)

In case you haven't headed over to Parker's site yet, he's having surgery today (Sunday). So as you can imagine prayers for him and his family are needed even more.

a little of this, a little of that

We've been spending our Christmas vacation being very lazy. Staying up late. Sleeping in. Playing with toys. Eating leftovers. Doing it all over again. You get the idea.

Yesterday Ben got his cast off. They even let Olivia take the x-rays (she pushed the button). She thought that was pretty neat. And check out the treats they gave the kids!

Ugh, I hate the yellow walls at that dr's office. Makes the pictures look so funky! Anyway, I know Ben doesn't look too thrilled in his picture. It's cause his leg still hurts. The dr said cause it was such a severe brake that it's just going to take time. He doesn't have to wear a cast but he still can't run, jump, etc. Not that he's even to that point yet. He won't even walk on it. So I'm on the hunt for a walking boot that'll fit him.

A word of warning ~ if your kid tries to break a leg, make sure they're at least in grade school when they do it so when you go looking for medical supplies you don't have to search the earth for them cause no one carries the "little" stuff. But I digress...

We've also been spending a lot of time taking care of this guy

My poor pup. He's almost 14 and really showing the signs of his age this week. When we woke up yesterday he couldn't get up, couldn't walk, couldn't do anything. I took him to the vet and found out that he has calcification between several of his vertebrae (basically signs of old age). There's a technical name for it but I can't remember. There's not much they can do for that so he got a shot and is on 2 medications to help with inflammation and pain. The meds seem to finally be working a little. He's still pretty wobbly and I'm not sure if things will get better or not. It's hard to tell if his reaction is from the meds or his condition cause he's acting a bit loopy. Not good when you have a dog that can't walk. Thankfully he was able to walk a bit more today but we still have to help him out a bit. After he starts improving (fingers crossed) I'll take him off the pain meds and see how he is.

So if you're the praying kind as I know a lot of you are, please say a prayer for my sweet old man. Cause I'm not quite ready to let him go just yet.

Prayers for Parker please

Just a quick note about Parker. He is having surgery tomorrow ~ a pretty big surgery. So if you feel inclined to do so, please say a prayer for him. Or a few. And for his family. I can't imagine seeing my little one have to go through surgery like that.

So please...say a prayer for them.

Raffle for Parker

Hey guys, I'm talking about Parker again :) Someone sweet made this quilt to raffle for Parker's medical bills:

For each $5.00 donation to Parker’s medical fund your name will be put into the back of one of Parker’s dump trucks, with the winning name to be drawn on October 31!

If you've been to Parker's website recently, you know that he has 2 upcoming surgeries which also means more medical bills. You can head here to read more. I know times are tight for a lot of us, but it doesn't take much to make a difference. Head over there, make a donation and remember ~ you're not trying to win a quilt, you're helping out a little boy and his family. And, for every person from my blog that heads over there to make a donation of $20, you will also receive a gift from me :) Come on, we all have $20. You know you do cause you're probably spending more than that at the scrapbook store! So at the risk of sounding preachy, don't just read this and move on....do your part. You help a family, you get a gift, and you may win a quilt. It's all good!!

Once you've made your donation, email me at ll_designs at yahoo dot com (sorry, trying to avoid those nasty spam emails!)