We've been home now for six days, but it sure doesn't seem like it!  I guess things are pretty well back to normal, meaning that we are busy again, and i'm constantly trying to get and stay organized!  The days have been a bit warmer the last few days which has made the little two busting out the doors to play outside!  Thus making it hard to get Hannah Grace to concentrate on her school work again ! But after leaving this, I don't have the heart to make her stay in all day!

a day or so before we left to come home!

They did have a lot of fun in the snow while we were there, we usually miss the snow, but not this year!

It was harder this time to leave even though I was anxious to get back home.  My emotions are so crazy right now anyway. Also I guess knowing that I won't be going back until sometime after the baby comes played a part also.

We did leave something very dear to us behind.....

yep, our oldest Leah stayed to spend some time with grandma, and her mamaw and papaw, and of course Sarah her bestie cousin.  Rach was going to stay to but decided she was good and ready to come home! I'm glad she did, its already lonely without Leah, let alone if Rach was gone too!  SIL will bring her back in a few weeks.

As for me, I'm getting better, but today I haven't had any energy! I've made several attemps to get started on things but haven't got very far. I do not like days like this!  Rach and I have done so much laundry over the last few days, maybe that's what wore me out! LOL!  I have a OB appt. on Friday, and then an appt. with the Surgeon on Monday, so I guess I'll find out how I'm doing!

Baby has been moving alot, and I LOVE that  can't wait till she's here!  We picked out a take home outfit a few weeks ago at Target, now if I can just find a cute headband with a big flower on it!

We started right in doing January things when we got home....Cleaning and organizing the kitchen (it looks great now)!  The best thing is that it cuts down alot of confusion in there!  We did a little re-arranging in the dining room and living room, thanks to Rach!

this pic taken before Christmas, thats another thing, we did get all the C stuff down, thanks again to Rach's help, I was going to let her stay, but I sure don't know what I would have done without her!   I'm still not supposed to lift anything because of the Hernia surgery, and I'm sure she's getting tired of me asking her for help, but she's helped just the same!

Something exciting!!!! while I was there, I set my mom up a xanga account, so hopefully she can keep up with us more and see more pics since I'm terrible about getting any mailed! You may get a friend request from her after she gets on to it a while. She is Elayne1948.

One last thing, remember that snowy pic, well DH hurt his wrist shoveling snow there, and has been in pain ever since, please say a prayer for him!        Have a great rest of the week!        Jill

Outside my Window...21 degrees and its been a cold bleak looking day, but with snow flurries! (yes we're still North!)

Around the house...I'm at my MIL's house and niece Sarah is spending the night. She and the older girls have been working on school work this evening.

From the kitchen...Dave went out and got Stromboli's for supper.

What we did today....we went to the Give and Save thrift store where my MIL volenteers, everything was half off, so we loaded up! We got some clothes for the girls, books that my nature loving girl wanted, and alot of this and that. After that MIL took us out for lunch at one of our fav Amish Restuarants!  We then went to Walmart to get a presription filled, and Hannah Grace and Hope shopped for some clothes with thier Chirstmas money. Funny to watch how Hannah, now 8 yrs old is getting interested in clothes! She had said...this year, I want to spend my money on some things I need! LOL

What we plan to do tomorrow....going to Springmill park (my favorite in the world) to visit a museum there about astronaunts such as Gus Grissom who was from that area.  Then to the Inn where they have a restuarant and game room in the basement. We would usually go to the nature museum there but it is closed, do they do have a small nature exibit there at the Inn. I hope there is more snow, it's so pretty to see it there. They also have a pioneer village but we'll probably think it too cold to get out and do any walking!

Pregnancy update... I'm recovering well from my surgery, it has been nice to be here and have all the help, and just get to rest. Only bad thing is Sat nite my back went out! Dave had to help me get in and out of bed for the next three nites. It's easing up now but I am having to take a pain pill about every nite. Any of you ever had this in preganacy? Not a back ache all the time, but theres a catch in it when I move a certain way.

I am praying for....a safe trip home, to get to feeling 100 percent better, and for my cousin who is very ill.

I am hoping for...to get back into a good routine when we get home, for the next few months to go smooth!

I am thankful for...how close Dave and I have become through these rough circumstances we've recently faced. Didn't know how I could love him anymore but I found an even deeper love and thankfulness for him in my life.

Somethings I've treasured most being here in Ind....Hugs from my Dad, seeing my girls enjoy thier grandparents again, and so much laughter when we're all together! I 'm missing home a little bit now, but I will miss all of them again the minute we leave!

Guess thats all my Rambling for now...HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

guess what???!!!!

For a brief time here, I'm not in too much pain! I'm finially able to get up and down without so much pain, and this is the first time I've sit down in a regular chair (computer chair) since I've been home from from the Hospital!   The worst problem I'm having now other than soreness around the area where they fixed the Hernia, is Constipation, yeah I hate to put that on here, but it's a prayer request just the same.

So I'm supposed to go back to the O.B. Dr. today, and "supposed" to get my ultrasound!!!! I will ask also when it would be safe to travel, I'm wanting to see my family so bad, can't hardly stand this delay!

Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you again for your prayers and your comments the last few days, DH would read them to me, you have no idea how that kind of encouragement helps pull one through  and Thanks to sweet DD who took the time ot post for me

Ok, now I will rewind to last Tuesday when it all started....As I had said in earlier posts, we did simplify quite a bit this year on christmas, and tried to stay a head of the game since we had plans to travel, so... the plan was to have our little family Christmas here at home on Tues. night. During that day, I didn't have the best menu going on, and we mostly snacked, knowing a nice meal was coming in the evening. Of all things I had DH's homemade cony sauce (like sloppy joes)  with melted cheese and chips. I had that twice, and don't remember what else. Started having a stomache ache towards evening and finially lost that meal outside  but that made me feel better for a time. Then we had supper, went on with pressents and I started feeling bad again, this time not upset stomache but a wierd tenderness on the right side of my stomach. I couldn't get comfortable for nothing all night, and while I was laying there, "GALL BLADDER" popped into my head. I got out of bed and headed to the computer to look it up, and scary! There was all my symptoms!  So I told DH about it, we had prayer, and tried to sleep some more.

WED. I got up early, called my OB. DR. which said yeah it could be, and that I needed to go to the ER. and get bloodwork, that they would Fax it over to thier office. So I called my friend Emily since I knew she had this not too long ago, and asked her about her experience. She advised me to go to to the E.R and that traveling would not be a good idea until this was checked out. So reluctantly we got ready to go (we always don't have time in our day for this kind of stuff you know! )

After running tests in the ER they comfirmed that I had Gall Stones and the next thing I knew they were wheeling me up to a room , not faxing it over to the office!

Then the Surgeon came in, scared me to death about the risks of having this surgery while pregnant, and told us about waiting till the pregnancy was over. So that sounded pretty good, but I was still in alot of pain. Then the OB DR came and talked to us, and scared me about having more attacks in the third trimester when its very dangerous to have surgery. They decided to keep me over night. see how I was doing by morning.

THURS. Surgeon came in again, scared me to death again , but told me he was hoping/ expecting this episode to be over, that I'd be pain free and ready to go home, but since I wasn't..he said he knew I'd have an attack again whether it be sooner or later in the pregancy and if we were to get surgery it should be TOMORROW, that I was in the best possible weeks of the pregnancy to get surgery. All the time going over the risks again...

He leaves and I'm a basket case, I'm laying there crying, and asking God which way are we supposed to trust you.. to get the surgery and you keep you hand on the baby, or to wait and see if we can make it through the pregnancy and use pain meds without the surgery. Either way we were to trust, but which way? Then Dave comes in and I start trying to tell him, but then the OB DR comes in again. The OB DR's were far more optimistic about it than the surgeon, and they said they have seen it alot. Talking with him seemed to calm my nerves a bit, except for the part that IF we chose to wait and try to do pain manangement, that the baby could be born addicted to narcotics. SEE how grim both sides of the fence looked!  DH and I talked a bit then he made some phone calls to a few people for prayer. Through all that we finially got a PEACE to do the surgery.   Peace that passeth all understanding!

FRI morning 6:15 my sweet mom called right before they took me down, DH wasn't there yet, it was raining hard that morning, so I'm praying for him to get there safe and before they took me back! The nicest lady wheeled me down to OR and just talked to me about my girls and told me how wonderful it was I was able to be home with them to raise them. She stayed close by until DH came. Once he came we just had a few short minutes, so he prayed for me along with the nurse on the other side of me holding my hand.  God had truly placed these people in my path for that day. Now the down side to being pregnant before surgery, you don't get sedated to help with your nerves, before going to to the actual OR! So I saw the room and all its scary equipment! They put on some Chirstain music for me, and it wasn;t long to DR was there and I was going to la la land!  Then it was all over!!!

Woke up feeling sore of course and nausia, but once I got to the room and had some pain med flowing, it was going better, baby's heartbeat good, PRAISE the LORD!  That afternoon our friend Lawanna from church, who had been helping with the girls, brought the girls over to see me. Little Hope looked like she was about half scared of me!  DH had been so tired through all this and fighting sickness himself, I decided although I needed someone to stay that night, that we'd have DD#1 to stay and he could go home with the other girls. That worked out great, she was a big help!

SAT morning Surgeon comes in, tells me I had a Hernia as well, and he fixed it, they went thru my belly botton to get it. My belly button had started protruding, and looked like what preg women usally looks like at 8 or 9 months! So he said now I have a regular belly button   He said I could go home, and I would have been glad if I hand't still been hurting so bad!

It was good to get home that evening, and get back on my comfortable couch! It was good to see our pretty decorations, funny how our own stuff comforts us!

So I've taken alot of pain med since I've been home, but have about stopped as of yesterday, Spent alot of time in bed resting. My scars from the Gall Bladder surgery stopped hurting by Sunday, but the Hernia incision has been the worst, I'm just now starting to get out of bed on my own without so much pain.

Through all this, I have to say God is So Good, I marvel at how it had to be him who worked out all these plans , who had all the right people in place, even down to the desired of my heart, which was that we had a nice family Christmas before all this broke loose! He KNEW!!!

I still desire your prayers for a full recovery, we are all so anxious to go see our family, but want to use wisdom about not going too soon.    

I have some neat pics to put on sometime showing some neat things (Chirstmas activiites) that we did last week.

Have a wonderful Christ-filled week!     ~Jill~

When my Mom sees all that I have posted she will freak out! The lady who took us to church, took my sisters yesterday, AND took the girls all day today is going to take us to the hospital to see Mom. Dad is coming home tonight, and I'm staying alnight at the hospital with Mom. So pray all of that goes well. I hope I get a little bit of sleep.

Dad just sent me a txt saying Mom came out of surgery ok! They moved her to a room and she will be sent home tomorrow morning. I am not sure which precedure they did but I will find out later.

Here I am again updating for Mom. In a jokingly and serious way I hope she gets home soon so she can blog for herself! lol! I'm kidding I enjoy blogging for her, and I appreciate y'alls prayers, ans support. Ok, so this is going to sound weird but I am litterally getting information about my own Mom through the grapevine! I thought she was going to have surgery Tuesday night or Wednsday morning. Coming to find out they were still deciding weather or not to have it. She was set to have the surgery at 10:00 this morning but they bumped it up to 7:00-30. I found that out by my Mamaw lol! I talked to Mom yesterday evening and finally got my details straight. She has gall stones and they are going to remove them. They were seeing where the baby was this morning to determine which procedure they were going to do. I know that one of them was like a tub thing they stick in you and somehow take up the stones. Something like that. I am still kind of in denial that all of this is going on lol. The Doctor said if all goes well she could probably leave by next Wednsday to go on our trip. I don't know if she will be staying the night or not. Don't get my wrong I am worried about my Mom but when she calls me from the hospital just to see how the housework/laundry is going...she is OK (he he)! Y'all keep praying for us! Have a good day! Love Leah

I'm DD#1 again! We all talked to Mom on the phone last night and I think she was bored! LOL!  There was no computer, so she is still doing well! He-he! On a more important note the choice was weather or not she wanted to get the surgery overwith or wait until later. I did not know that detail last night. Mom and Dad just talked to the same lady who took us to church last night and they are having the surgery today, and our trip will be delayed  but only for a few days! If everything runs smoothly! Pray we make it there by Christmas Eve! Rachel and I are going to try to get the house cleaned up today. The lady who took us to church last night offered to take the little girls for a few hours!! So I'm going to get off of here and get busy! Y'all have a good day and thankyou for the prayers! Pray she comes out of surgery ok, pray for the baby, pray for a quick recovery, and pray I don't go insaine over the suspense of waiting a couple of extra days lol! Just pray for the whole situation, and thanks again for your prayers! Love Leah~DD#1

I am DD#1. My Mom asked me to update her blog for her. Mom was having stomach pain yesterday and the day before, she wasn't sure what it was so she started to look stuff up and had Dad take her to the Dr. today. She was in the E.R. for a while and had several test's done. Finally they decided it was her gall bladder and that she needed surgery. She is staying at the hospital tonight, dad is going to the hospital in the morning. He came home tonight so that us girls wouldn't have to go anywhere overnight. They woke me up this morning and told me they had to go to the Dr. So Rachel and I babysat all day, and got a ride to church from our Sunday school teacher. Pray for Mom this is all very nerve racking. We are suppossed to go on a trip this weekend also. Well I am going to try to get some sleep. Love DD#1/Leah

Outside my Window...Sunny but Cold!!!

Beside my Bed.... a vaporizer, water bottle, and carmex  yal, we're still trying to get over all the congestion, its hard to breath thru my nose at night, and I'm battling chapped lips and very thirsty all night long!

In the School room....table is clear, thanks to the girls! And the floor is swept, but still have lots of stuff in boxes sitting around where I can't seem to get thru with my book shelf clean out!

In the Kitchen...DH was off today, and he made me sausage links and french toast &coffee for breakfast!

In the Dining room... table has became the Christmas card station and the sewing table for a project we were working on for school this week.

In the Living room...a beautiful Christmas tree deorated in red and green and white, with sparkly garland, pic to come later!

I am hoping for...a good turn out for our Christmas caroling tonite with the church youth.

I am praying for...the baby, for my girls, for DH to start feeling better, for a safe trip to see family, for wisdom in raising my children, for some things to fixed in the house!

I am thankful for...that this year we really simplified our Christmas activities, so that I don't feel overwhelmed like I have in past years! Drawing names helped alot, putting up less decor (even tho that about kills me) not baking for everyone in the country this year  but we are a little just to make memories for ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I hope I don't sound too much like Scrooge here, WE LOVE Christmas, just decided sometimes you can do too much, and not focus on the real reason, OUR SAVIOR!!!!!

I am enjoying... sitting here listening to Christmas music, while I Blog,listening to the little girls play outside.

A recent fun activity...I took the girls out to the park where they collected large pine cones to decorate as Christmas trees to give as gifts. I have some cute pics of that but can't find the camera card I used!  I will put them on when I find it!   Also, I took them to the thrift store where they bought some brand-new items for gifts for thier friends. They were thrilled that they could buy for more people that way, and they had enough money!

Another recent activity....Last Sat was Rachel's piano recital, here's a pic, vidio will come later

Rach and her teacher Emily

Now for some Chritmas lights... we drove around Tallahasse last night after our Prison Ministry Christmas Party

a little park we drove thru

this next one is in town

not a great pic, but it really is beautiful how they have the white lights strung in the trees with the spanish moss hanging...a beautiful southern thing

So tonite is caroling, tomorrow nite we will celebrate the two Dec. B-days early DH and DD#3, and we might go ride the Christmas train at the park if it's not too cold. Then Sunday, and Monday starts our packing for our trip! We will have our Christmas here early too, probably on Tuesday...then FRIDAY we're supposed to find out if we are to be buying pink or blue baby clothes!!! Can't wait!!!  Have a Great Weekend!!!!    ~Jill~