When we all get to heaven...

I have to wonder, if our family in heaven watches us as we live here... When our friends on earth pass, will our heavenly family meet them? Excited to hear about their family and how they've been doing? How much they've grown, how big their family is? Celebrate with them? It's just a question in my mind. We get excited here when we have a mutual friend. How much more excited are they in heaven? 💜

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

October 19th:
I know I'm late on it, but I did think of it all last week and wanted to
post on the actual day. well, look what that got me. *blush* Just wanted
to let you know I'm still thinking of you, missing you and hoping all is
well.
I do wonder why I can never reach you or if any of the letters I sent
ever got to your address you gave me. :(
So happy birthday dear friend! I hope you got a LOT of hugs and great
stuff from your family. :)

For Dody

I'm so sorry for the loss of your big sister. It breaks my heart that
you have to go through this. She put up a strong fight through the years
she battled breast cancer and through your updates, I could see that
just like I remembered her, she was full of life.
So many prayers go out to you, your entire family and every person she
touched, for comfort through this time. I wish I could be there to give
you a real hug and give you a shoulder to lay your head on.
She is one of my heroes now, along with my husband's mother, that even
though they lost the battle, they didn't lose the war because they will
never be forgotten for all that they were.
Love to you my dear friend.

what is it coming to?

I'm so heartbroken for one of my OL friends whose been dealing with hospitals and dr.s for months, trying to find out what all is wrong with her little two year old son. One thing after another and hospital to hospital, and now they're trying to blame a staph infection and other stuff on her. :(

the world is not a pretty place...

good days

yesterday was a good day! my friend Danielle and her boys came over at lunch and spent about 4 hours with us. Gavin has been aching to get Sam over (her 5 yr old) to play and this was their day! we had a simple lunch of hot dogs, chips, sandwiches and ramen noodles. LOL! total kid-fare, but it worked!
we had a great time cause we got to blab all day! LOL! been quite a while since we got to do that without missing out on a church service!
the kids played themselves tired and all mine were more than ready to crash come bedtime. hehe!
they even played in the rain since a front came through (and made it darned cold afterwards!). of course I forgot to get any pics. ah well. we're going to try to make it a more regular thing now since we'd gotten out of the habit. perhaps the kids and I will go to her house in a couple of weeks. :-)
ah, Garrett has started something new today. he's sucking on his bottom lip!
he also scratched his nose today. his nails are clipped but I obviously missed a tiny corner of one and it got his nose while eating tonight. even bled some, dang it. of course I went over his nails again when putting him in his sleeper for bed.

sleep will make it all better!

just put G2 down and praying that we have a good night. last night sucked once again since he was up from 2:30-4:40 am. so I've implemented the 'sleep thread' techniques (started yesterday with naps really, so it can only go better from here... right?! ) he did nap pretty well on the 3rd take today 2 short 30 minute naps during the day til about 5 then he slept for about an hour and 15 finally (w/ a short wake up 45 minutes into it where I was able to just paci and pat his butt back to sleep). he's down earlier than usual too... course he could pop back awake w/in the next half hour. he's done that plenty of times. he's just so exhausted cause he's so busy during the day and doesn't really take long naps usually anyway. definitely time to get him sleeping better.
I remember Hunter being 7 months and us going through this. course then they can pull up and it makes it harder! I'm starting earlier this time. I need my sleep!!

I did get out for a walk with him today in the stroller. we went out around the yard and looked at everything. he was fine as long as we move. stinker. got much stuff cleaned/picked up, including a bit of rearranging on my living room. love that! our LR is pretty set the way it is and not much can be changed unless we got a new couch. (its a 3pc sectional). but I finagled some stuff and we have a different look for a while now. dh likes it so we'll see how long I keep it like this.
tomorrow is grocery day and the temps are to fall some too. mid 60s I believe. (BRRR LOL!) raining right now, but the kids went down fast.

I got to have a good chat with my neighbor, Regina, today. they're going to PA for the weekend and wanted to borrow my honkin washer to clean up a couple comforters before going. been a long time since we got to talk really! made me realize I need to make woman time with some gals. her, my friend Danielle and my friend Becky. need to get together with each of them on a good day and just BE! the kids will enjoy it too cause they all have homeschool kids their age.

ok, off to do a bit of stuff before running to bed while I can! he's still sleeping, so I may get a few winks in!

old friends!

I have some very awesome news about a friend of mine who called today. some of you will remember the past year, I wanted to find a friend I'd gone to high school with. my best friend for so long and we'd lost touch and I didn't know how to find her.
well, she called me today!!!!  we talked for 2 hours!  the bestest most fantastical part of it is that now she's saved and have given her life to God and is on fire for Him!!!  she is a total 180 of the girl I seen last time and was SO worried about! she told me at one point that she knew I'd been praying for her cause of things that had come about and the way things happened.  made me feel so wonderful to know those prayers I've said over the last few years really did manifest!
we talked about so much and I got to tell my mom tonight too. it was just such a blessing to know she's finally found peace in her life and is sharing her joy! she was always a happy personality person, just makes you want to smile.  she said she never knew what to smile for before hand, but now she does! I'm so happy for her! I even know how to find her cause she lives in the house she grew up in now! I cant wait to see pics of her, her two kids, new hubby of 2 years and her 2 step kids!
so it was an awesome night!!

Jackson - a baby angel

In very sad news, Jackson did indeed pass away last week. A day before he turned four months, they let him go off the respirators and medications. He had a massive infection in his body and more surgeries were needed and the dr.s were sure he wouldn’t make it through in his weakened state.
The funeral was so hard to watch. His parents amaze me in their strength though. They are glad he is no longer suffering.

Our neighbors

Our neighbors got the news today that Jackson, their now 3 ½ month old son who’s been at Vanderbuilt NICU since the day he was born, likely would not pull through the rest of the week. He had surgery this past Sunday and has been sedated since, not waking once. He de-sats if they even touch him and he's had to be resuscitated several times. He’s on a breathing machine and at first it only helped him every now and then, now it does all the breathing for him. He’s on 3 different pain meds, including Phenobarbital and a med for keeping his BP up and a med to keep his blood vessels from restricting. Things don't look good.
They have the choice of whether to let him continue as is or to let him go. Gina said they'd not made that decision yet (since I'd talked to her this afternoon).
If you could keep them all in your prayers as they go through this. It'd be so wonderful for him to make a complete recovery; if he does he has a lot to overcome, including weaning off all the pain meds which he is now 'addicted' to. I feel so heartbroken for them. She puts on a strong face, but her eyes are so sorrowful. :(