A visit to Grandmom's and four band-aids later.

I went to visit my grandmother in Birmingham his past Friday. I stayed with her and then had plans to go to my ONLY sister's first child's baby shower on Saturday. Friday was an enjoyable day with my grandmother and her husband, my mom and step-dad, my uncle, a friend, and, of course, Helen! We played and laughed with Helen for hours. We even went shopping for a new pair of shoes for Helen to wear to the shower. I was SOOOO excited, having planned to go for weeks.

Unfortunatley, after dinner on Friday night, I began to feel a little tightness in my tummy. I thought it was indigestion. I decided to go to bed and didn't sleep a wink. Tightness became ache, and ache became pressure, and pressure became pain. By midnight, I'd had enough. I called my mom and we decided it was best that we go to the ER.

At the ER, they took blood, but determined that everything was fine...except for my obvious pain. They wouldn't do an ultrasound due to that it was a Saturday and there was no immediate need or emergency. One would think a doctor would want to know for sure what was causing my pain, but not this one. So he gave me pain meds, saying it was "probably" my gall bladder, and sent me on my way. He told me to see my family doctor when I got back home. (How he thought I could physically drive home....I'll never know)

We got back to grandmom's about 6am to rest, but I couldn't, as the pain meds hadn't started working. Moma went home to rest. Little did I know that she would call an hour or so later, to tell me that she would be driving me back to GA. WOW. What a mom!!

She got Helen up, fed her some breakfast, and got her dressed. Then, she packed up and loaded all of mine and Helen's things into my van. Keeping in mind she's still had only a few hours of sleep, she gets all of us in the van and off we ride to GA....a four hour trip barring there are no stops. (Of course, with Helen potty training, we stopped several times)

The trip went well! The Lord kept us safe and without delays all the way home.

I was able to get an appointment with my doctor first thing Monday morning. By then, the pain had subsided (without pain meds), but as soon as the Doc pushed on my abdomen, she pretty much confirmed the ER's hypothesis that it was a gall bladder attack. She immediately called the lab and got me an appointment for an ultrasound. They confirmed that there was in fact a stone and infection (why the blood work in the ER didn't show infection, i don't know). So off to the surgeon's office for formality's sake.

Surgery to remove the gall bladder was scheduled for Wednesday (yesterday). It's long name is called laparoscopic "cholecystectomy" *co-lee-sist-ECK-toe-mee*. I don't remember anything after I left Brian, other than the nurse was nice and gave me a warm blanket...yeah...right out of the toaster! I woke up with cotton mouth, four band-aids on my tummy, and feeling as if I'd done 10,000 sit-ups while sleeping! Pretty good, huh? I felt way better than I did in the ER 4 days prior!

Gotta love American technological advancements! After they removed the organ, they found that the stone was actually blocking the exit to my pancreas and that the actual gall bladder was only filled with infection. I'm so thankful that I got rid of that thing before the stone made it's way into my pancreas. I think we all know what a detriment that could have been!

They say I'll feel better in 48-72 hours! And I believe it! Even without the narcotics I feel pretty good! Thank the good Lord for a successful surgery! Thank you to the seven wonderful people who came to visit me before they took me to surgery: Larry, Essie Mae, Harry, Mary Alice, Richard, Pat, and Tommy. It means so much that they came! Thank you also to my wonderful husband for being with me through this whole thing and for making me feel comfortable and cherished. Thanks to my mom too for the unending list of helps and for being at home taking care of my sweet Helen when I couldn't. (I'm sure it was hard work being with her grandbaby for days...lol)

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts!

I can't leave you without a picture, so see it below. (second post for the day...see next) Have a great weekend everyone!

Two people I miss so much....Lori and Kim.

They always make me smile!

RAH RAH REE.....GOOOOOO TEALE!

Yall. Check out this new blog layout! That Teale has done it again! I asked her to make a layout suitable for that picture of Helen, and she got it perfectly! Wow. She's the best! If any of you need help with designing a fabulous blog layout.... see Teale. She'll work with you to make it perfect for your personality. It's awesome that she just "knows" what you want just by asking a few questions. Could she be design-psychic?

Nah...she's just GOOD! (And, she just had a beautiful baby girl!!)

P.s. I have a new post below about the beach trip

Beach Trip 2008

Orange Beach, Alabama...aaah. Nice! I love the beautiful beaches there and the laid back atmosphere. We usually go in late summer or early fall after all the nutty kids have gone back to school! This year's beach trip was so beautiful. The beaches were so clean, and the water was so clear. Even the jellyfish stayed away so that Helen could get in the ocean. (as a side note from a previous post, Helen called her swimming pool "Daddy's water") When we went to the gulf, I wanted her to know the difference, so we called the ocean "God's water" and she seemed to understand that.

The trip had two legs. The first leg was to Notasulga to drop off Nathan to PawPaw and Mimi's house and spend the night to start our second leg the next day to the beaches. On the way down, the kiddies got a little restless! We sang songs and at the last few miles, all we could think of to do was to make silly faces and "bobbing heads" to the music on the radio. Here are the pics of all of us sticking our tongues out, then of the head banging. (because head bobbing is a motion, none of us really look like we are doing anything! LOL)










That night for bath time the kids wanted bubbles....well I gave them bubbles! There was more bubbles than water! LOL They had a blast. But Nathan REEEEEALLY liked it! Here's the funniest shot!



We went with Brian's brother Eric and his wife Haley - two super, wonderful, sweet people! We all came in on Friday, but Saturday was our first day to play. Most of the morning, Haley and I played with Helen at the beach and in the ocean. I'm not sure if Helen ever really understood why the water wouldn't stay still. She knew that the waves would come in but didn't undestand why they didn't stop. She stood at the water's edge for a while just kinda looking at it while she sunk further into the sand. She didn't like that at all, but she didn't care until she realized she couldn't get her feet out! LOL! Of course I was standing with her, but it was funny to see her trying to pull herself out. She played a while in the sand with the sand castle stuff, but she mostly spent her time trying to put as much of the beach sand back into the ocean as she could. She'd run and throw as much goopy sand that she could hold with as much force as her arms could thrust into the ocean. She probably did that for twenty minutes without stopping!



The pools at the condo were fun too! Helen enjoyed the "walk-in" pool. Helen played in this most of the time. There was also a kiddie pool for the little ones, only a foot and a half deep all over, with a giant mushroom waterfall at one end. Helen liked the pool, but didn't care much for the shroom. Something about the water falling on her head she didn't like. We tried it with her several times to show her that it wouldn't hurt her, but she fussed, so we just let her swim.



She couldn't quite understand the innertube, but she left it on long enough to get a picture.

This was a fun fountain pond thingy for the kids to play in. The fountains would come up and go down. Helen bent down to look where the water went and when it came back on it hit her in the face! HAHAHA! (I mean, poor girl!)


We ate lots of seafood, but mostly at The Original Oyster House. Man, that place is good! This is a picture where Helen was looking at a big boat coming in or a bird...or something. Doesn't she look just like her daddy!!! That face is all Brian!

I think the best seafood we had was actually homemade at Haley's mom's house. Helen calls her Ms. Angel. They had a big shrimp broil with corn cobs and potatoes and sausage! OH...it was "slap yo' mama good!" Everything was wonderful! They had a little pond out back where some ducks had taken up residence. Helen loved to watch the ducks. She says "cack cack cack!" She's not quite gotten the "Quah" sound!






Sadly, we only spend a couple of days in Orange Beach because Gustav chased us away. But maybe later in the year we can go back before it gets too cool. Although, once a year is about all that I can get Brian to go to the beach. He's not much for it. He'd rather be at the lake. For me it's the atmosphere. I love everything about it, from the sand and the smell of the ocean, to the people and the fun little shops, from the fresh seafood to the endless starry skies. Ah.. It makes me relax just thinking about it! :)

I hope you all have had a fabulous summer. I hope you enjoy the pictures...more below.

Turbo...? Not so much

When I ordered this little beauty (Bissell Turbo Sweep) at walmart.com, I was impressed by the number of great reviews that it had. I wanted a quite little electric sweeper to pick up Cheerios and whatever else Helen drops so I didn't have to drag out the big vacuum. I got this for my office, actually. Well, it DOESN'T WORK. Contrary to the reviews, (of course there were some that do agree with me) it doesn't "suck" like it's supposed to. I tried to vacuums up some thyme I spilled in the floor (you know the herb that weighs NOTHING) and it took like forty passes to get it cleaned up. What kind of vacuum has so little suction that it won't pick up HERBS!

Ok, I'm done ranting.

The good thing is, that this little vacuum is the best thing for HELEN! I let her go around and play use it. She loves to push (and pull) it around and clean like mommy. Toy vacuums are fun, but this one beats them all. Even though this "real" one doesn't work very well, it is somewhat functional AND it's a kid pleaser! Who knew?

But here's the question, do I give it a good grade for being a good toy or a bad grade for being a rotten sweeper?

PS. I HAVE A NEW HELEN POST. SEE NEXT.

Our Lake Trip 2008

We all went to Mimi and Pawpaw's house last weekend to go to the lake. That is, Lake Martin. Since we've moved away to GA, that is something that happens ever so rarely. Helen loves to swim and loves her Mimi and Pawpaw, so we left her home with a babysitter....JK. She was thrilled to see them and to go to "PawPaw's Lake!"

We all loaded up and headed out mid-morning Saturday even though the forecast said there was a 40% chance of rain. The kids were ready to go and couldn't wait to get on the boat. I don't think Helen was quite prepared for the boat ride at the speed we were going. It took her a minute to acclimate herself to the wind blowing in her face. She didn't cry, but she seemed uncomfortable. I guess we all have to learn sometime! She eventually figured it out.

We ended up in the middle of the lake, "floating" as we always do. I must admit that it's my favorite thing to do, as long as it's really really deep water. That first jump in the water was a little bit shocking. Since the sun wasn't directly shining down, the water was a little cool. But it was fun and the kids liked it. The sun peeked out an hour or so, and it was nice, but then we started to sweat! I guess it all evened out.

I'm not sure why she wanted to touch her toes, but it was funny.

Ty rode the inter tube and the knee board; Brian road the inter tube and skied.

While Brian was on his first ski run, Helen's hat flew off. Brian, the heroic daddy he is, squatted down (keeping his balance no less) and reached down for the floating hat. Had he been about a 1/4 second faster, he would have grabbed it! What a sweet daddy! He let go of the rope to go fetch it for her. When he got back into the boat after his second ski run, I explained to him that he didn't have to go get it, it was just a hat. He said, "But it was a cute hat!" Wow.

Helen and Nathan played the hardest. They nearly wore out PawPaw and Brian. Those kids played and jumped and swam with all the energy they could muster and had just a blast!

Those are Brian's legs underneath Helen. What Nathan is doing....I don't remember.

Leslie and Brian made me laugh the most, however. They started playing around on the inter tube! I've never seen two people try so hard to get on an inter tube. I think they were trying to get on at the same time, but once Leslie was on, then she helped Brian on. You can't tell from the angle, but they are all laughing hysterically. If it weren't so funny, I don't think it would have taken them so long to get on! LOL.

Once they both finally made it, they played like they were five and on a see-saw, rocking it up and down. And then......they flipped. So much for the hard work. I laughed and laughed!

It started to thunder and lightening later in the afternoon, while Ty was knee-boarding. We pulled him in and headed to the car. It was a good thing too because the kids were tired and so were we!!

Believe it or not, that Helen of mine, fought it tooth and nail to go to sleep. I'm not sure why, but she was wired. After naps, the kids took their traditional ride with Pawpaw on his tractor. It wouldn't be a visit without getting on the big tractor.

Sunday morning came fast and we went to the Opelika church for services. I forgot Helen's dress at home Friday night, but I happened to pack her a sundress for the boat trip. It looked good on her, but it was no Sunday dress. She worked it though...! LOL! She got so many compliments about her hair that I doubt anyone even looked at her dress! (Those red-heads get all the attention!)

After services we had lunch and went back to Mimi's house to pack up and visit with Mimi's parents.

Pawpaw had ice cream and Helen helped him enjoy it.

This is our Lake Trip 2008 and I am so thankful that it was a good one.