Jesus, Bring The Rain

I LOVE this song! However, I always have a hard time singing it. I don't think I have ever made it through without getting choked up or without tears.

Go Abby!!

Abby has wanted to give cheerleading a try for a long time. Now she's got her chance! Last Saturday was her first game and she LOVED it!! So far, I am loving the organization that puts this program together! It is a Christian organization which means that at each practice they have a devotional/prayer time as well as prayer before the games. I love it! It is basically for fun and not meant to be competitive at all! I love that for this being our first time with a new sport! Very encouraging! If you know Abby you know that she does not like for people to see her. She is always afraid she will mess up or of what people will think of her. I think this is going to be a great confidence building experience for her.

I loved how they introduced all of the girls! You can't really tell, but there was a fog machine there too! So cute!

Their first time in front of the crowd.

Halftime!

I am so glad for Abby to be the one doing something she enjoys! For so long she was carted around to all of Ben's things. Now it's her turn and she is loving it!!

Luke and Theodore

Luke makes me smile everyday, but this was just way too cute! He loves this little chipmunk toy!! Since this video he has learned how to say Theodore. Or should I say, "De-dor". Too cute!



I had to post both videos because I love his little high pitched laugh as he's trying to imitate Theodore!

How could you not smile watching that?

The Saga Continues.....

Well, I thought the whole kidney stone story was over, but, alas, it wasn't. In my last post I was a day away from getting the stint removed and moving on with life without kidney stones. Well, I did get the stint removed on Friday and had a pretty good day. I got some housework done, had a friend over...all was going pretty normal. Later that night I was feeling a bit of pain and figured I had overdone it. Around 11:30p.m. I got up to take some pain meds, but they never kicked in! The pain became completely unbearable!! I finally gave in around 1a.m. and let Jon take me back into the ER. (My AMAZING friend, Laurie came right over to stay with my sleeping kiddos!) Thankfully, the ER was not busy again and I never even had a chance to sit in the waiting room. They took my right in, got me scanned again and on morphine. Unfortunately, the morphine didn't work like it had before. The pain wasn't going away. It didn't take long before the doctor came in and told me that there were still kidney stones in there and that they were going to admit me into the hospital. I guess the plan was that they would put me on a Demerol pump and lots of fluids in hopes of flushing the stone out. If that didn't work, we would talk to the doctor in the morning and see what his next plan would be. (Possibly surgically removing the stone?)

After a fairly sleepless night and lots of waiting for the doctor on Saturday morning, the doctor said that he would like to wait the day out and see if I could pass the stone on my own. Due to the size of the stone he thought that was a definite possibility. I spent the day in the hospital completely drugged, slept most of the day and made FREQUENT trips to the bathroom. Unfortunately, no stone. My friend, Laurie, stayed at my house with my kids all day!! I know they had a great time, but at the same time, I felt awful that she had to spend her whole day at my house. Jon talked to his parents sometime that afternoon and they offered to come down and help out. NICE!! My family got to have a nice home cooked dinner that night! I was so thankful!

Another crummy night of sleep and still no stone. More waiting for the doctor.....

Finally, the doctor came in and gave me a choice. He could send me home with pain meds and I could see if I could pass the stone at home. Or he could take me into surgery and remove the stone. Hmmm...Not much thinking had to go into that one! TAKE ME IN!!! Within about half an hour I was back in surgery for the third time this year!! I, obviously, didn't care! I just wanted this whole thing to be over! As I was laying in the recovery room coming out of the anesthesia the nurse told me that the doctor had removed TWO stones and had shown them to Jon. She then asked if I would like to see them. Heck yes I wanted to see them!! Those things look just as nasty as they sound! They looked like little pieces of gravel with jagged edges and all. NASTY!! I asked if I could take them home, but unfortunately, she said they had to be sent in. I would love to share a picture with you! I know, you are probably glad to not see them! It wasn't too long after returning to my room that I was released to go home. Crazy!

This is the banner that all the kids made for me! Ben and Abby were disappointed when we tried to come in through the garage when we got home. We had to re-direct and come through the front door so I could see it as soon as I came in. So sweet! Thank you, Laurie!!

Ben's humor...

I asked Ben if this was what he was going to have tatooed on his arm. He didn't think it was very funny...

A bit of love from Abby.

Luke' artwork.

I came home to my three happy, smiling, adorable children, a clean house with the laundry done (My father in law and Ben took all of the laundry to the laundromat because the pipes to my washer were still frozen!), groceries bought and homemade chicken soup simmering in the crock pot!! It was amazing!! I don't know what I would have done without all of the help! THANK YOU KEN AND JEANIE!!!

Yesterday was a great day for me. I did absolutely nothing, at the demands of my husband, and felt very little pain! I was able to make it through the day without taking any pain medication! I slept great last night! I am feeling a little bit sore today, but still haven't taken any pain medication! I actually made it to the grocery store today! I am due to return to the doctor's office on Friday to have my stint removed. (He put another one in on Sunday just to make sure everything was draining and to get rid of any remaining kidney stone residue that was left.) Please pray with me that there will be no more stones and no more issues! I am a little bit nervous about getting the stint out, but I'm sure everything will be just fine.

I would be a complete loser if I didn't say what an amazing husband I have!! He is truly AMAZING!!! Jon has taken care of SO much while I have been out of commission! He has run the kids wherever they need to be, done laundry, taken care of meals, cleaned house, sat with me in the ER, waited for me in surgery, sat with my in the hospital through my awake times as well as my sleeping times. Everything! There are so many things I can't even name them all! Jon you are the BEST and I love you SO much!!!

I can't thank everyone enough for everything!! From watching the kids, to bringing meals, to taking care of things at home, even all of the well wishes on Facebook.... I am truly blessed!! THANK YOU!!!

Happy New Year?

I'm not so sure I can say that it has been a "happy" new year so far. I know things could be drastically worse, but so far, I just haven't made it to the happy part. Just in case you have no idea what has been going on around the Grief house, I will catch you up. (Hang in there, it's long...) As you may have seen in a previous post, we went to Oklahoma City over Christmas break. That trip had it's issues, but we really did have a great time! The day after we got back it seemed as though the bottom started falling out. Luke had a fever, Abby said her ear hurt like she had an ear infection and she had a fever, my brother in law had an awful cold, Nolan, my nephew, had a cold. The next day more of us felt crummy, and the next day was even worse. My visiting family ended up leaving early due to feeling lousy! It's no fun when no one feels well! I was so sad to see them go, but it was completely understandable. We didn't have any plans for New Year's Eve this year and that turned out to be a good thing. We went to Wal-Mart just to get out of the house for a bit, but Ben couldn't manage to walk through the store. Jon took him out to the van and I very quickly got what I needed and rushed back outside. By the time we got home, Ben rushed into the house and got sick. YUCK!! New Year's Eve turned out to be pretty uneventful at our house.

Ben watched movies in his room so that his germs would be separated from the rest of us.

Jon dozed in the chair while feeling a sore throat coming on.

Abby was my trooper! (Yes, she is awake in this picture!) She was determined to stay up and watch the ball drop in NYC! We were so bummed at 10p.m. when the local news came on! Normally we watch the ball drop at 11p.m. central time and go to bed. That wasn't the case this year! I decided to go blog while Abby watched some Disney Channel while waiting for the ball to drop. Finally at about 11:55p.m., Jon woke up and Ben came out of his room (We left Luke asleep. Some things are better left untouched!) and we all watched the ball drop together. Then we went to bed. Fun, huh?

January 1st started with a rude awakening! I went to bed feeling fine and woke up at 4:15a.m. with a pain in my side. I went back to sleep thinking it was just a gas pain and it would go away. I woke up again at 5a.m. and then again at 6a.m. I came out to lay on the couch so that I wouldn't wake Jon up, but I must have been sighing loud enough to hear me from the bedroom. The pain was getting much worse as time went by. Jon knows that I have a pretty high pain tolerance and suggested that we go to the ER. I wasn't thrilled about going, but, like I said, the pain continued to get worse and was beginning to make me nauseated. Plus, what were we to do with our three sleeping children??? (Thank goodness Ben hadn't gotten sick anymore during the night!) Thank goodness for our small group friends!!! Our friend, Jill, was over in no time! We made it to the ER and there was NO ONE waiting!!! I thought for sure with it being New Year's that the waiting room would be full! I think the Lord knew how bad the pain was and that I couldn't wait long! Within 30 minutes I was in a room with Morphine flowing through my veins!! I have to say, Morphine is good!!! I am a fan!! (I wonder if you can be a fan of Morphine on Facebook???) Anyway, after being poked, prodded and cat scanned, it was determined that I had two kidney stones. Number one: 3mm. Number 2: 6mm. The doctor told me that I could probably pass the small one, but once you make it to 5mm, they become a problem. Great! So, I would have to wait until Monday to see the urologist and was sent home with some good drugs.

Saturday: I was still in a pretty good amount of pain. And still nauseous. I laid in bed, slept a lot and got sick a few times...

Sunday: Still in a bit of pain, still nauseous, but not letting up on the pain pills! Now Jon is sick with the stomach bug! I have now decided that the nausea from Saturday was not necessarily from pain, but from the stomach bug that Ben must have passed on to us! Ugh...

Monday: YAY! back to school for the kiddos! NOT! They ended up having a snow day! For three inches of snow! Whatever!! I really do love my kids, but with all that has been going on, I was looking forward to some peace and quiet.
The nausea is gone for both Jon and myself. I was scheduled to go into surgery at 12:30p.m. to possibly remove the stones and put in a stint that would allow my kidney to drain. Well, not such great luck on the stone removal, but the stint is in and the pain isn't nearly as bad! Will have to go back on Wednesday for a lithotripsy procedure to break up the stones. Yay! Another trip to the hospital...

Tuesday: I was really looking forward to the kids going back to school again, but wouldn't you know it, Abby woke up throwing up this time! What in the world is going on around my house?! Oh well, what can you do? We just hung out at home and watched Jon work around the house. He is one amazing man!!! Laundry was done, the kitchen was clean, he took care of it all! AND, thanks to our friends, The Couri's, we had a home cooked meal! THANK YOU!!!

Wednesday: Both kids made it to school! YAY!!! I thought I would be wonder-woman and get all of the Christmas decorations down and put away before heading to the hospital for my procedure. I was on pain meds, so why not? Not sure what I was thinking! But Jon let me do it! I didn't get it all done, and I was completely wiped out, but I got a lot of it done and felt a lot better about it. We went to the hospital with our kids in good hands, yet again, and got those nasty kidney stones blasted!! From what I have been told, the stones are now tiny enough for me to pass without even noticing! YAY!! Now I all I have to do is go into the doctor's office on Friday and get the stint removed! I can't wait for this to all be over!!! Again, an awesome home cooked meal from the Armstrong's! THANK YOU!!!

Thursday (Today): I got a GREAT night's sleep!! The kids are home again due to the frigid temps, but I think that might be for the best today! Jon was finally able to go back to work after a day shy of three weeks off, and since I'm not supposed to be doing a whole lot, I think having Ben and Abby home will be helpful! Plus, I could use them to do a little bit of light housework. :)

I keep thinking about the things that I heard at the Deeper Still conference that I went to just a month ago in OKC.

Kay Arthur: "Rest is the activity of faith for this anxious moment, this test, this tribulation....."

Beth Moore: "It is within me!" Stay faithful!!

Priscella Shirer: "God is able!!" Ephesians 3:20-21 NOW to Him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY above ALL that we ask or THINK, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory FOREVER and EVER!!!

Great things to think about at this time! I have also really appreciated all of the verses people have been posting on Facebook! I feel like they have been put there just for me! I'm not sure what the Lord has in store for me and my family this year, but I am praying that the start hasn't been an indication of what the rest of the year is going to be like. God is a faithful and loving God and I know that He always has and always will be watching over us and protecting us!