I've already lost half of November!!

So, the month of November didn't quite start out how I intended. Let's see - Monday November 3 - spent the day doing normal SAHM stuff - basically, busy all day. It was my hubby's first day back at work after a month off. I spent the morning at the eye doctor with Daniel - what should have been no more than an hour appointment lasted two hours! Then I picked up the other two kids from my Gram's and all four of us headed to a friend's house for a craft project. Then it was back home for lunch, naps, cleaning, etc. We got the computer table and computer stuff all moved into the new office. Busy, busy day.

Fast forward to 11:30 pm. I'm in my jammies, crawling into bed. Hubby has been sleeping for a couple of hours already. Suddenly my head explodes - the worst headache I've ever gotten, and it came on out of nowhere. I was seeing stars, and circles, and blood was pulsing through my head. The pain was horrendous. I even woke James, and said "something is not right here". But we both decided I had probably done too much that day, and pulled a neck muscle, and in a couple of days I would be ok.

However, the headache wouldn't go away. Tuesday I was so sick from it, couldn't keep anything down. Wednesday I went to the chiropractor, thinking he could snap my neck back into place and I would be fine. Thursday I still couldn't get rid of it, so called my family doctor for an appointment. He didn't like the sound of how the headache had come on, so he booked me an MRI/MRA appointment for 3:30 that afternoon. Friday, I still had not heard the results, so I called my doctor's office. I went to my foster parent/adoptive parent Donation Station event, and had stopped at my church first to drop off the items for our Silent Auction that night. My gram was watching the kids until 3 pm, when James was to get home, and I would be gone all day at two different events.

However, at 11:30 my doctor's office called, and gave me some not great news. The MRI showed two brain aneurysms, and the one behind my left eye had burst, which was why I was in so much pain that week. I was to go to the ER of the hospital ASAP, and the neurosurgeon would be waiting for me. I was in shock, and scared to death. I took care of things at Donation Station, had a friend drive me across the street to my church to tell them I wouldn't be able to run the auction that night, and James met me there to take me to the hospital. I made a dozen phone calls on the way down - family, friends - to let them know what was up.

I got to the hospital, and you know your case is important when they rush you past the 20 people in the waiting room to start preparing you for surgery. I was just so dumbfounded - apparently, the death rate for burst aneurysms is 85%, and the neurosurgeon was pretty amazed that I was functioning as highly as I was on Friday. He said my case was already pretty miraculous, but you know, I serve a Big God, and He must have some pretty Big Plans for me, because He kept me very protected!

I had a CAT scan and cerebral angiogram on Friday, then consulted with two surgeons about the best way to take care of my issue. I had one aneurysm behind my left eye that had burst, and a second one elsewhere in my brain that had not done anything yet. After hearing our two options - clipping or coiling - we chose the clipping. Even thought it was more invasive - they would have to cut through my skull - it had a higher success rate and more control during the surgery. I had the surgery Saturday morning, and pretty much don't remember from late Friday night until I think Monday afternoon. I was in ICU from the 7th to the 14th, then in a regular hospital room until the 17th.

I have some amazing family and friends - they really took care of my kids and husband while I was in the hospital. My MOMS Club made and delivered lunches and dinners for the entire time I was in the hospital. Friends and family came and stayed at the house with the kids so James could be in the hospital with me. Family, friends and pastoral staff came to the hospital to pray and visit. I have received three deliveries of flowers at the house, to beautiful Christmas Cactuses while in the hospital, gift baskets and numerous cards and notes. I have never felt so blessed and loved!

And now, I am home. I'm tired, and I seem to have caught a little cold bug that had been in the house. But I'm glad to be here, home from hospital, and alive and kicking! The only real problem I'm having is going to sleep at night - I have this fear that if I go to sleep, I won't wake up. I'm praying against that fear, but it lingers.

So to those that helped our family out during this time - thank you! And for those that prayed - thank you! You are all such a blessing to me!

Here are some photos from the ordeal:

On Thursday, before my second angiogram to check the surgery.

Lovely bruising from the surgery.

At one point, my whole left eye was swollen shut.

The stitches that go halfway across my head.

My lovely welcome home signs from my kids!

A Great Blog to check out!

Holiday Cooking, Blogger Style



Take a look at what is Happening over at Overwhelmed with Joy, one of my blogging friends. She's got a great holiday recipe exchange and a giveaway. Go take a look and see!

Happy Halloween!!

Just thought I'd share a little glimpse into our Halloween festivities. We had a big day, full of lots of fun stuff, and ended up on a candy high for a couple of days! Oh well, it only comes around once a year!

Our goblins in their costumes, getting ready to trick-or-treat at an adult day center with our MOMS Club friends.
We tried for Lions & Tigers & Bears (oh my!) but couldn't find a bear costume to fit anyone anywhere! So, Austin is a Dragon!At Daddy's birthday lunch - lots of fun!
Dancing and singing our Halloween song!
They were so excited to go out and get candy!


Trick-or-treating at our friends house.
Gretchen learned very quickly what this was all about!.
Taking a quick play beak from mall trick-or-treating.
From one lion to another....

Having fun at the church Harvest Party.
Here is the bean bag game....

....and here is the apple toss game.

Eating our spoils with Daddy.....

....and Mommy.


We finished the evening by trick-or-treating a few houses in our neighborhood, where we got some of the best candy (full-size candy bars, with mom and dad's names all over them!). We had three very tired little pumpkins by the time we were done, but I know they all had a fantastic day!

A day at the farms

We took the kids to a couple of local farms for some fun fall activities today. Corn maze, pumpkin blasting, lots of animals, and pumpkins galore. We had a great time!

Great Photo Display Idea

I found a great idea for using shadow boxes and photos. Please follow me to Vintage Mommy to see what I'm talking about. I think I'll try it with some of our adoption photos.

The Official Family!!!

It is official - all our children are now really ours!! We completed the adoption today, and it's just amazing! So many years of waiting, and now Austin, Daniel, and Gretchen are really our children legally. Even though the proceedings went very quickly, it was a joyous occassion, and tearful too. Here are some photos of the fun event!

The Courtroom Scene

With the judge

With our Lawyer

The Future Lawyer!

Gretchen & Mommy

Daniel & Mommy

With Grandpa & Grandma

The Official Family!

With Grandpa, Grandma & Great Grandma (Gram)

Celebrating in the Ball Pit!

Back to the Eighties

As promised, here is a photo of me dressed up in my 80's costume. My hair doesn't look nearly as big in the photo as it felt when I was fixing it. And my outfit is on the preppy side of the 80's, but it's the best I could put together at midnight the night before the conference!

Off to Reno!

I'm headed off to Reno this morning, leaving for three days for an American Cancer Society "Relay for Life" Summit conference. I've never been to Reno, so I'm excited to go. Hopefully it will be lots of fun. Friday night should be interesting, as the theme for the big party is "Back to the Future" and we are all supposed to dress 80's style. Yikes! I've been working so hard to shed my 80's everything, and now I'm supposed to bring it back? Trying to find an outfit to pack for Friday night was not easy, probably mostly because I left it to the last minute (like midnight last night!) and had to be really creative. I'll have my friend take a picture at the party, and I'll post it here later, and you can all tell me if I resemble the 80's at all!

James will be on his own with the kids, except for today. He's at work today, so Gram is coming over. But he's taking Friday off to stay home. So please say a couple good prayers for him - he's a great daddy, and takes care of the kids really well, but it's still got it's challenges! At least I'll be back Saturday night, so he doesn't have to do church with all three by himself, although he can do it - he's done it before!

I'm so glad that I've had lots more visitors to my blog lately! Feel free to leave a comment if you would like. I've had almost 100 visitors come by my blog since Wednesday. Of course, that's the day I sent out my big e-mail announcement about the upcoming adoptions, with a link to the blog, so I was kind of expecting that! But, welcome anyway - glad you came by to visit!

OK - I'm off to do some last minute packing, get breakfast for the kids, and say my good-byes before my ride gets here in an hour. Have a great weekend everyone!

Free Subscription to Parenting Magazine

Get a free subscription to Parenting Magazine when you click here. I found out about this through Money Saving Mom blog - I think this is going to be one of my new favorite blogs!!

The County Fair

Well, we finally made it to the county fair. We had intended to go last Monday, when it was free for everyone, but Daniel decided to spike a 102-104 fever that day. So instead, we went on the very last day of the fair, which actually wasn't too bad. We missed seeing the pigs and chickens, as they had gone home, but we saw lots of other animals. The food was great, of course, and I couldn't believe how much Gretchen was eating. She had to have bites of everything - chicken nuggets, french fries, ice cream, noodles, salmon sandwich, funnel cake - you name it, she ate it! How she still only weighs 20 pounds is beyond me!

The kids got to ride a train, too, and they loved that. It was our last thing to do before leaving around 8pm, so it was starting to get dark, but the kids enjoyed it, and the conductor gave us an extra turn around the track because it was the last ride of the fair this year.

We had a really great time, and even got in free! There were some people getting in just before us that had extra tickets that they had already bought, so they gave them to us. I think we'll go on the last day from now on - you still get to see most everything, but the crowds are less.

We have a court date!

Just a quick note before I head off to church - we finally have a court date to finalize the adoptions of all three of our kids! Our lawyer called us on Friday to say he had our paperwork on his desk, and to give us our court date - Monday, September 22 at 3 pm! The kids will officially be ours! We are so excited to be at this point finally!!! Now to plan adoption day and the big party!! Woo Hoo!!

Auntie Brenda visits!

Auntie Brenda (Meegan's long time college friend) decided to visit today before heading out to the airport to pick up a friend. We had fun catching up and yakking, and the kids had fun playing with her. Here are a few pictures of the visit.

Austin's first day of preschool!

Wow! Austin went to preschool today! How amazing is that?! He wasn't nervous at all, in fact, he didn't even turn around to say good-bye. Just jetted right into the school and up the stairs to his classroom. Daniel cried for quite a while though, because he thought he should be able to go, too. Austin was all smiles when I picked him up. The first thing he told me was "I listened to the teacher!" which was a good thing, since his daddy had a nice talk with him about it last night. He also said that he painted, sang songs, and played. We went to McDonald's afterward for a celebratory lunch. So here's to preschool - may he always have a great time!

Here's what's cookin' for....

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I posted my menu plan. Can you tell that summer was very, very busy!! This is a big week for us - Austin starts preschool tomorrow morning! I'm going to make him a special dessert to celebrate, although I haven't picked out anything yet. Maybe even balloons at dinner time!

Here's our menu - let's see if we can stick to it!

Monday - Spaghetti & fesh fruit/veggies
Tuesday - Homemade Grilled Hamburgers & Oven Fries & Special "First Day of Preschool" Dessert!
Wednesday - Pork Chops, Applesauce, & Broccoli
Thursday - Sweet-n-Sour Chicken & Pasta
Friday - Ravioli Casserole
Saturday - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Sunday - County Fair Food - yummy!

To check out some other great menu ideas, go to
Organizing Junkie - lots of links to great menus for families of all kinds!

Bad Sunday

Yesterday, at church, we were told that Austin is too busy and hard to control in preschool, and it would be best if we could find a personal helper for him in preschool because he is too disruptive. The whole time I was being told this stuff, all I kept hearing was "you are a bad parent, you don't know how to make your kid behave". I know that is not what she was saying, but that is what I was hearing, and it made my whole day go bad. I guess the best thing to do would be to have him sit with us in service, because I doubt I'll be able to find someone who wants to give up their Sunday morning church service to sit with Austin in preschool. He starts his own preschool on Tuesday - Montessori preschool - so we'll just do our own Sunday School type lessons at home on Sunday afternoons. James is going to sit in on preschool with him next Sunday, just to see what's going on, but I'm sure that just having him sit with us on Sundays will be what will happen. He's just so busy. Hopefully this Montessori preschool will help him focus better. At least he's not being disprespectful to the teacher - just can't sit still! It still makes me feel like a lousy parent - especially when paired with the fact that I just can't seem to get him to potty train completely. Somedays, I tell you, I wonder if I really know what I am doing!

And it's off to the doctor....

Yesterday at lunch, James noticed that Daniel's eyes were a bit goopy, but we thought it might be that he was tired or something. After his nap, Daniel's right eye was very swollen and full of yellowish discharge. Oh, great - pink eye - just what we need! So this morning, I took him to the doctor. What he actually has is Periorbital Cellulitis. The doctor even considered admitting him to the hospital right away to start a 24-hour IV antibiotic! Shocked the heck out of me! But because he was so lively, and didn't have any pain to the touch around his eye, she just prescribed a heavy-duty antibiotic and made an appointment for us to come back in the morning to have it checked out. He's also got an ear infection in his right ear. He's been a bit fussy lately, and had a runny nose and low-grade temp, but I thought it was because of the molars he's pushing through. But now, I've been totally educated on this eye infection! He's taken one dose of the medicine, and already his eye isn't nearly as red around it as it was this morning when he woke up. So hopefully, when we go back tomorrow, the doctor will say that it is getting better and to just continue the meds at home. I'd hate to have to put him in the hospital! The good thing is that he is not contagious, so I don't have to worry about the other two getting it. A huge relief!

Please keep him in your prayers! Thanks!