Let's Catch Up, Shall We?

Life has finally slowed down a little bit and I can finally sit down with the ol' blog again. Or is it really just that a certain someone is in the field again and I don't feel bad sitting down at the computer in our spare hour after Andrew goes to bed. Either way... here we are.

Trey's been out in that darned field so much lately that when he is home, I haven't been sitting down at the computer much. I'm enjoying soaking up every minute we have together. Thankfully, it looks like that junk will slow down until July. I better soak it up because we then face our first extended separation. I'm freaked out about it and that's only for a month. How in God's creation am I going to do 9 months???

I was in a bit of a funk for the past few weeks and I can't for the life of me tell you why. It could have been a multitude of things piling on. For one, not getting enough sleep and not being happy with my body and diet. Also, and I don't think I went into too much detail about it on here, but I had been on Zoloft for a little over a year. It was working great for me and I felt like I could have stayed on it forever. It helped me to be such a pleasant person. Unfortunately, doctor's frown upon the use of Zoloft while trying to get pregnant. So I had to break the ties. It was an ugly parting. Scary at times. I didn't do it the right way at first and went through legitimate withdrawals. So I smartened up and listed to my doc. I've been doing good and can only notice a difference when it comes to my temper. I have a lot less patience. Anywho, I haven't been taking it for a few months now so I don't think that could be the cause of my funk. Either way, I'm feeling better. I'm accrediting it to getting more sleep, eating better and staying busier.

Speaking of busy...
We through a Derby part over at our house for our friend Ashley's birthday. It was such a great time. We bet on the horses and mine almost won. I don't know where the heck Amber's horse came from, but her's stole the show... and my money.

Pre-made cocktails

Drew gets jealous when I show affection to other men

That little boy pictured above has been a trip lately. More on him coming soon for his past due 20-month update.

I'm doing Weight Watchers again. I know, I know, I don't blame you for rolling your eyes. I wasn't even going to talk about it, because I always have these great big plans that I never, NEVER stick with. But there it is. I told you. Help me friends, help me. It's a bit easier this time because I have my smartphone and was able to download the app. All the info I could ever possibly need is right there in my phone. Wish me luck. I HAD to do something.

THANK YOU for any prayers you may have said for baby Abraham, who was born last week at 24.5 weeks gestation. I've been posting a few updates on my blog's FB page, but basically, he is a BIG BIG fighter. He had a surgery (I'm not sure for what) last week and came out of that well, he doesn't need to be under lights anymore as his bilirubin is already at normal levels, and they got to touch him for the first time on Saturday. WOW! Thank you God! I remember all too well what it's like to not be able to touch your new baby and those first touches.. can't compare much to that! I know continued prayers would be appreciated and I'll try to update y'all as much as possible!

Oh, what was that, you're all asking me? Your blog has a facebook page? Why yes it does. And you can come over and "like" it here.   I love having a blog fb page. I know the people who see my updates want to see them and I'm not clogging up others' news feeds. Why anyone would not want to get updates is beyond me, but whatevs. ; )
Also, I'm on Twitter. Maybe you want to follow me there too, yes? I've been loving following other bloggers there and the more personal interaction it allows. I can't for the life of me find the time to comment on all the blogs I want to.. but a quick tweet? Totally doable. Let me know if you're a tweeterer!

Well folks, that's the end of my shameless plugs. Enjoy the rest of your night.. or errrmm... good morning! (depending on what time zone you're in!)

Prayers Needed for a Sweet Family

I'm sitting here watching the Draft tonight in the comfort of my sweats and my cozy living room.
While I'm sitting comfortably, munching on some FlipSide crackers after my calorie allowance is over (they are SO good.. Okay I'm putting them away) a sweet friend of mine is sitting in a hospital room for *hopefully* the next 10 weeks, trying to keep her baby alive.

When Andrea was 17 weeks, her water broke. The doctors told her that, with no water for her baby, the only thing they could offer her was termination. Andrea and I didn't live in the same city for very long, but I can tell you immediately that that was NOT, in fact, an option for her. When she denied the doctors' suggestion, they told her she would deliver within a week anyways.

Well, friends, it's 7 weeks later and that baby is strong and alive inside. Andrea is feeling the kicks and the baby's heart is beating strong. They, of course, are not in the clear.. she's had more complications, including contractions which they've been able to stop for now, but they are holding onto faith.

Every day that passes, that sweet baby gets stronger and stronger. I've asked Andrea if I could share her story with y'all if only to get more prayers. She welcomed the extra prayers, but is also thinking of others at a time that a lot of people wouldn't. Here is what she said:

 "Please do request others to pray for us. You are welcome to share our story as you see fit. I have been part of a group of moms all over the would who is suffering the same problem and there are a few success stories. Most of those success stories are from women who refused to give up and found ways to cope with the news that was so heart breaking. I want others to know that there is hope. That no mater the outcome I have enjoyed every little kick, every little hiccup, every little sound of its heart. No matter what, we are now a family of 6!" 

If you could take a moment out of your day and just life this family up. They are such an inspiration! Their faith.. sigh.. I admire it. A true testament. I'll keep you all updated, hopefully with news that baby Reay has defied all odds!

My Dad

It's times like these where it really SUCKS - for lack of a better word -  to be away from family.

I got a call yesterday from my mum saying she was at the hospital with my dad. Not to freak out too much, but it was his heart. He was awake, hungry and complaining. I was on my morning walk with Andrew and was stopped in my tracks. "Don't freak out too much".. I don't know why people bother telling me that. Of course I'm going to freak. I kept on with my walk all while texting trying to find out more info. (Of course this is on the one day during the week that I can't talk to my husband).

I don't know much more information. I was able to talk to him. He was transferred yesterday to the heart hospital and they are doing tests.
He's had issues with his heart before. His father did as well. He already has a pacemaker that was put in a while back. It's working just fine, but his heart beat is still irregular. They did labs and he didn't have a heart attack. This morning he was brought in for a 4-hour nuclear stress test, and they are hopeful we'll have some answers by this afternoon.

It's hard to hear your dad in obvious pain or discomfort. It's hard to imagine him in the hospital. My heart really hurts, not being able to be there. To give him a big hug and kiss. To be there for my mom. It just plain sucks.

Please lift my family up in your prayers! Pray for his comfort, my mom's peace of mind, and for those doctor's to find some answers.

*One thing that really made me smile last night, was to hear that he was very upset that he couldn't watch American Idol at the volume he would at home. He would usually have it cranked up to 60 and can't really do that in his hospital bed.* Always a sense of humor in this family!

Lead Me

It's my pleasure to introduce to y'all the MOST handsome little boy that I have ever set my eyes on ~

Mr. Andrew G. Norton!

Here he is just minutes after being born on August 28th at 8:15am. He is 7lbs 6oz and 19.5 inches. He had a rough entrance into this world. When the doctors realized I had pre-eclampsia during my appointment on Friday, I was sent up to L&D immediately to be induced (I had too much protein in my urine and not enough platelets). Right away, they set me up with an IV for the Pitocin and Magnesium Sulfate, which was used to prevent me from going in to seizures. They warned me from the beginning that the Magnesium would slow him down and he may not cry as soon as he comes out. Well, after a long and hard birth that I will disclose in a little more detail later, we realized that it was a little worse than that.

When he came out, he was severely distressed because all of his systems were depressed and he knew it! They set him on my belly long enough for Trey to cut the cord and pulled him away trying to clean him up. Not to long after that they rushed him out of there and I was told that he was being transferred to another hospitals NICU unit. Trey went with them to make sure he was being taken well care of. It was/is the hardest thing I've ever gone through.

I sat in the hospital recouping until Sunday night and was finally released around 8:30. We came him and to say it was upsetting to come home without a baby in my belly and no little Andrew to put in his cradle is a severe understatement. As hard as it is, we are keeping up the positive thoughts and really leaning on our faith right now.

He's doing better day by day. The machines are doing just about everything for him at this point, but we're trying very slowly to take him off of things one by one. Today they took his fully catheter out and last I heard, he is doing very well. He was soaking through a diaper with the catheter in, so they felt pretty good about that. They started to take him off of Dopamine which is helping to regulate his BP. They took the level down a bit and Andrew was borderline where they wanted him, so they've stopped that for now. Little by little.. step by step. He's not being sedated anymore either so that's great!

Right now, we're not sure when he is going to be able to come home, but we know that he is in very good hands. The pouring out of love and prayers we have received from people everywhere has been overwhelming. It's breath-taking. We got to go in this morning and touch him for the first time.. it was a moment we'll never forget. Here are some pictures:


While we were waiting in the nurses office Friday morning to find out what was going on she had the song Lead Me on the radio. I remember tearing up and telling Trey how much I loved that song and wanted to have him listen to it when we got home. It was the last thing I heard before going up and being induced, so when I remembered that this afternoon, we listened to it together and just cried and cried. We're going to need a lot of leading from God in the next few months... years I'm sure!

Dance

Just a quick post to share a thought...

Is it possible for your life's passion to be something you are not even capable of doing yourself??
Can you tell where this is headed? I post about this every time it comes back on, as if I haven't explained enough how much I love it. Yes, another season of So You Think You Can Dance has started and I am in love all over again.

As I sit here watching the dancers perform in their own genre tonight, my heart explodes with happiness and some performances even bring me to tears. I can't get enough of all the Contemporary, Jazz, and hip hop numbers and the choreographers, in my opinion, are shear geniuses. Travis Wall, Mia Michaels, Napoleon and Tabitha, Lil C, Mandy Moore, and Tyce Diorio... I love your crazy sick dancing selves.

Now if I only had their talent. Instead I live vicariously through them all.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers! We still don't know much more information. They are slowly bringing his temperature back up and as soon as they do, they will bring him in for a cat scan. We should know something tomorrow morning. I'm staying positive!

Today, my heart is sad

Yesterday I was asking for advice, today I'm going to be asking for prayers if you're the praying type, lots of good juju if you are not.

Last night, my uncle (he is also my godfather) started seizing in the middle of his sleep. CPR was preformed on him before he got to the hospital and when he did arrive at the hospital, he was life-flighted to another one. The doctors don't really know what went wrong other than they believe it is something to do with his heart. He's now on all kinds of machines, they have him in a medically induced coma until tomorrow afternoon, and they will be preforming an echo tonight. They don't know what will happen tomorrow when they wake him up.

I JUST saw him while on my trip to Massachusetts. He was fine. His normal ornery self. I was just sitting on his lap while he loved on my belly. We JUST enjoyed a dinner of Papa Gino's pizza together. Now I'm sitting here all day, praying, glued to my phone for any kind of update.

For now, I'm staying positive. I'm thinking good thoughts and plan on giving him hell when he wakes up for scaring us all like this. We'll show him...

Serenity Now

One of the issues that has been weighing on me a lot lately is my grandmother. It has been an up and down roller coaster for the past couple of weeks. One day she's doing fine ~ the next she's going to the hospital and asking for the priest ~ then she's doing more than fine and it was just the drugs that were making her feel like she was dying ~ now my mom is in route to the airport. She's flying up there to see her.... things don't look good. She's back at the hospital, trouble breathing, lungs filling up again. She signed a DNR yesterday. I can't say I blame her.

I know I've already mentioned this, but one thing that has really comforted me throughout this process is faith. I know my gma has a ton of it, and I have enough to make me believe she's going to be perfect again standing in front of Jesus the second she does pass.
Right before my cousin Kate came down here last week to move into the dorms, gma gave her a stone I guess you can call it. It's clear and has an angel in it. She taught her the Serenity prayer and told her that it's always helped her to hold on to the stone for a bit, while saying that prayer. Knowing how much of a hard time I've been going through, Kate then turned around and gave that to me last week. I know... it meant the world to me. I've used it quite often over the past week and I have to say, I really do think that it helps. This will be something I treasure for the rest of my life, thinking of gma and kate every time I hold onto it.

Here is the prayer in case you have never heard of it. I love it.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can:
and wisdom to know the difference.

Not enough time in the day

At one point today, as I was standing endlessly by the copier, getting files to closing, I seriously prayed to God and asked him to add more hours into my day. I was only 1/2 joking. The day is just not long enough. I never get everything I want/need to in. And really.. i'm only asking for about 2 more hours.. maybe 3. One more hour dedicated to sleep. The other two hours for blogging and tv watching. Come on Big Man.. that's not too much to ask is it? I mean part of it is dedicated to Him afterall since I've started doing a daily Bible reading. All I ask is for a 27 hour day in return..

In other news.. I'm kind of ashamed of myself, and like always, feel the need to repent. Last night as I'm cooking dinner, there's a loud knock on the door. Trey goes to answer it and it's a fireman asking for donations for our local volunteer department. Trey invites him in. I go hide in the bedroom because I'm in my pj's and no bra. Lovely site for Mr. Fireman! When I hear him leave, I come out, only to be met by him proclaiming so so proudly that he gave Mr. Fireman a check for $50. I spazzed. I probably shouldn't of. He was so proud of what he did. As a sidenote, to get me ready for the possibility of him leaving, I've taken over keeping up with all of our money and bills. So I know our money situation probably shouldn't have allowed us to give Mr. Fireman $50. But I feel really really badly. He was doing something out of the kindness of his heart, to people that really need it, I'm sure. And I spazzed. I have since apologized.

Can I get an Amen for the weekend!!! I don't think I've needed one more in my life. I'm just plain exhausted! I don't plan on doing a thang Friday night. Saturday we have a jack and jill baby shower to go to for our sweet friends Wendy and Tim that are due *ahem* right around my birthday in March. It's funny how life goes by in spurts like this. For the past couple years it's been allll about the weddings. Constantly. Now it looks like we're making a turn for the baby years. I think I'll be a little behind on this boat.. but you never know!! I wouldn't complain.
Saturday night we are hanging out with some other friends, but I don't want to stay out too late.. why you ask??
After months of searching.. wasn't searching too too hard to be honest.. we've finally found "our" church out here in Lexington. I LOVE it. It's perfect. I love the pretty drive there. I loved that I felt welcome and comfortable from the moment I stepped foot in this place. I love that they have a young married couples Bible study - at the church - right before, or after, depending on what service you go to - I love that when the preacher read out of his Bible, he was reading out of the same one I was. Not a different version. I loved that I didn't space out once during his sermon. I loved the music. So.. that's what I'll be doing Sunday morning. Our first week of Bible study.. then service at 11. I'm very excited about this!!
If only I can make it through one more day of this tourture some people like to call work...

Prayers Needed..

Although I am a little far behind.. it's never too late for prayers.

I've never read this blog before, but after seeing other people requesting prayers and hearing about her story from someone who doesn't even have a blog (mum), I had to check it out. After giving birth to her beautiful little girl the other day, there were some complications, and the baby had to be flown to St. Frances hospital in Tulsa. I think as of earlier today, baby Harper is in stable condition. It is completely overwhelming to see not only their own faith in God and in prayer, but also the love and support they are receiving from fellow bloggers around them. They have hundreds of people praying for them. People they don't even know, but have been following her blog, are showing up at the hospital to show support.
WOW... This only shows what I've come to truly believe over the past couple of months on here to be true. The friendships we form are real. Our bloggy friends are just as real and true as my girlfriends that live here and see in real life.

So if you haven't already, go on and check out her blog, give them your support, and please please please lift up your prayers for her family.