Almost 25 years ago

My friend Tara (who has been my friend since Kindergarten) tagged me to do this, so here's my fives. I also added our kindergarten picture for your viewing pleasure. That's me on the front row, on the right end. Tara is the second from the left on the front row. We do have on matching white knee socks. I'm sure we planned it:).

Five Things on my TO DO List:

1. Iron. This is a never ending battle for me. It is my LEAST favorite household chore. I think if I had a place where I could leave the ironing board out at all times, this would be better. However, the spot of choice for ironing is our bedroom, which means the board should get put away after each use.
2. Make a bench cushion. I just got some fabric and foam while in Dothan to make a cushion for a bench in our garage. I’m trying to get some good use out of my sewing machine.
3. Go through the kids’ clothes. I need to go put up/give away all the ones they’ve grown out of and make room for new stuff. I keep thinking they have clothes because their closets are full, but most of it is too small?!
4. Redo our bedroom. We just decided to do this and are in the process of trying to pick out new bedding, fabrics, paint color, etc. Most of our walls are still that drab khaki/grey color and I am in need of a little color in my life. I will probably be using le ‘ole sewing machine on this project too.
5. EXERCISE. I’ve lost all of my Grady weight, but could use quite a bit of “toning”. If I could just get back in to the swing of running and if only it didn’t have to be at 6 AM….

Five Favorite Snacks:

1. Pretzels and Chocolate Chips
2. Chocolate Chip cookies
3. Fresh Fruit (but I don’t like the washing, peeling, cutting, etc. that sometimes goes with it)
4. Ice cold Root Beer in a bottle (this is about a once a month treat)
5. Popcorn and M&M’s (thanks to my friend Nikki)

Five things I would do if I were a Billionaire:

1. Pay off our debt and lots of other peoples’ debt.
2. Build my dream house on lots of land
3. And have a house at the beach
4. Travel (Hawaii, Africa, Europe, to name a few!)
5. Buy my husband whatever kind of car he wanted

Five Bad Habits:

1. I bit my fingernails until I was 22 years old and started nursing school. Technically, no longer a bad habit, but it’s one of the classics so I had to list it.
2. If my hair is down, I will twirl it, tie it in knots, or do little braids.
3. I’m not very good at calling people back. I’m not much of a phone person.
4. Sometimes I don’t finish sentences or thoughts when talking to people (especially Steven and this seems to be very irritating :).
5. I start a lot of things without finishing them. That's why I have a few different stacks of "projects" in the bedroom, on the bar, in the closets... you get the idea.

Five Places I Have lived:

1. Born in Birmingham, AL but lived in Dothan, AL for 17 years
2. Bamberg, Germany (lived there for 6 months in 7th grade with my mom & brother)
3. Troy, AL (4 years for college, small break to Daphne, AL for 4 months then 3 more years in Troy)
4. Almaty, Kazakhstan (10 months teaching English at a university)
5. Birmingham, AL (3 years and counting… technically I live 20 minutes south of Birmingham, but it’s close enough to say Birmingham and nobody knows my little town anyway!)

Five Jobs I’ve Had:

1. Teller at Southtrust Bank in Troy through college (5 years)
2. MAID at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Panama City Beach, FL during a Summer Beach Project with Campus Outreach (2 months, thankfully!)
3. RN on the Med/Surg floor at Edge Regional Medical Center in Troy, AL (6 months—we moved to B’ham)
4. RN with an OB/Gyn office in Birmingham, AL (4 months--we left for Kazakhstan)
5. Stay-at-home mom for 3 years!


I thought I would end it with our second grade picture. I'll let you decide who's who. This was quite a second grade class!

For you Days Fans

I will confess I did watch Days of Our Lives while in college. I even admit to scheduling classes around the show a time or two. And while I don't watch it now, I can bet the same things are still going on 10 years later. But this is for those of you who do still watch--and I know there are some of you out there! Commander Abe (I can't remember his real name?!) came to my mother's school to read to the kids in March when I happened to be at her house. Unfortunately, I did not pack up my two small children, forgo naptimes and drive 45 minutes one way to see him. The autographed picture and photo of him and my mom was enough for me. Hope you faithful viewers are impressed.

Happy Earth Day! I will save my Earth Day post for tomorrow... or the next day.

Another update

My grandmother continues to recover well. She is being moved out of CCU to a room on the cardiac floor today. She's off the ventilator and has been able to drink some and keep it down. She is pretty uncomfortable but I'm sure that will improve as she's able to start moving around some and changing her position in bed. So far so good...

My nephew got out of the hospital late last night and is doing fine. He still has a weak appetite and is eating only bland foods, but that's to be expected after a bout with food poisoning. They still haven't found out exactly what happened, but around 25 kids (including a few workers) got pretty sick.


Grady was 8 months old yesterday. He is so fun and funny. He makes these growling and throaty sounds at you and will smile at anything. He's getting better at moving and pulling up and will even try to hold on with one hand and reach down to pick something else up. He's just started taking two naps and sometimes this makes for VERY long afternoons?! He has a bottle and goes to bed around 7 PM and sleeps until 6:30 AM. He remains toothless. And he loves to poop right after I've changed his diaper. I guess some babies just need a clean one to mess up:).

I have to share some of the sweet things Elle has said since being here. We went up to Dad's office yesterday. A lady was talking to Elle and asked her who her best friend was. Without hesitation she said, "My brother". And this was our conversation last night before bed:


We were talking about her not being afraid and I was telling her that we were all here with her and that Jesus was with her too.

E: "Where is Jesus?"
M: "Well, He lives in our hearts."
E: "Is He is my heart?"
M: "He will live there if you ask Him too."
E: "Jesus, please live in my heart... Is He there?"
M: "Yes, baby, He's there."
E: with her hand on her heart, "Now He's right here if I need Him."

I don't think it can get much better than that.

One more thing, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our little friend Laura Beth! Hope it's a great first birthday. We love you!

On the road to recovery

She made it through the surgery (about 4 1/2 hours) and will be in the CCU for a couple of days. If all goes well, she'll stay in the hospital for about a week and then go to a rehabilitation center for three weeks. We went back up to the hospital this afternoon for a few hours and I was actually able to go in and see her for a minute after she got in to the CCU. She was not awake yet and had several tubes everywhere but she was doing well. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.



On another crazy note, my nephew (21 months old) got put in the other hospital today. Apparently, something happened at his day care and several kids got food poisoning?! He's getting IV fluids and they are keeping him overnight. This picture was just Sunday afternoon when he and Elle were playing outside here at Dad's.

Update

Grandma is having the surgery today around 12 noon. It will last about 3-4 hours. I was able to stay with her at the hospital on Sunday night and I will forever be grateful for that time. My dad had a great conversation with her about her relationship with the Lord and he said he felt confident that when it is her time, she will be with Jesus. I took the kids up there one more time this morning (they got to see her some on Sunday) and Elle sang "Jesus Loves Me" for her. Too sweet. Thanks to those who are praying.

Heart Healing

Please pray with me for my Grandma. She had a "mild" heart attack on Monday night and is in the hospital. She had a heart catherization done this morning and the doctors found 90% blockage in two vessels and 70% blockage in another. She needs to have triple bypass surgery as well as having a diseased heart valve replaced while they are in there. She is 84 years old and has lived independently (although never had a driver's license) and with minimal health problems for 16 years since my granddad passed away. This is a significant surgery and recovery especially for someone her age. I'm not sure exactly when she will have the operation, but I'm hoping to go down tomorrow and stay the week with Dad. Hopefully, the kids and I will be able to see her some before the surgery. I will try to update at least the date for the surgery. I do appreciate your prayers for my Grandma. Jesus says He takes out our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh, thereby healing our hearts spiritually. Now we need His healing of her physical heart.

This is a picture of her teaching me a few years ago how to make the best dumplings in the whole world! Unfortunately, I'm not sure I remember the precise way. I need another teaching session, so pray with me that she'll be in the kitchen again in no time!

Seriously

I officially reached a new degree of motherhood today as Grady spit up in my MOUTH! We were playing on the floor, giving each other kisses, when he gave me a little more than I wanted. It was in my mouth, my nose, all over my cheek and chin. And that is about all I would like to say about that.