Trying to make this blessed blog look cute.

And all I can say is "GRRRRRRRR!!!!!"

REALLY long time no blog!!!

I'm going to make an effort to use our blog again...after some persuasion from some avid bloggers (thanks Becca and Shannon!!) Here's a little of what has happened recently...

Joel graduated. *sloppy sobbing from a big sister* He's been through so much and we are so proud of him and what he's accomplished, and for being a Riley Champion. He's handled his illness, finished school despite numerous weeks in the hospital and three surgeries in a matter of 5 months last year. A year later, he graduated and has his sights set on psychology at IUSB. So proud!!
We went to Chicago on Memorial Day weekend, and took Mandy and Andy with us. We wanted them to experience how much fun we've always had when we go, and this is our hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, right off of the State Street shopping district.

This is at the Museum of Science and Industry. There is a display of unborn babies, ranging from 6 weeks gestation up until 40 weeks. All of the babies are real, donated fetuses due to spontaneous miscarriage :( and right here is the last two...a 26 weeker right next to a 40 week gestation baby. This is what Evan looked like, right next to how he should have been born.

Paul and Andy on the train. We stayed at my Aunt Brenda & Uncle Tim's place about an hour NW of the city, and rode the train in to stay in the hotel for Friday night. We took them to our favorite places in Chicago...the Chicago Pizza and Grinder Company, the Museum of Science and Industry, stayed in the Palmer House, heard some awesome Chicago blues music, did some State Street and Magnificent Mile Shopping, and two other restaurants that we go to when Paul and I go to Chicago. We had a blast.

Mandy and I on the train.

Long time no blog!

Paul is trying to fix the mower (it's been a long, drawn out saga) and Evan was offering his expertise.

Evan going down the slide with Great-Aunt Brenda. We took a quick weekend trip to see them. Evan had a blast. I don't think we were even missed when we went in to the city.

This is Grace feeding Evan. Grace and Evan were true buddies the entire time. He still claps at a certain point on one of his movies, something she did with him while he was there.

My apologies for our absence. No real excuse, just slightly overwhelmed with our schedule. Just the babysitting, Paul gets home, we play outside, make supper, clean up, and then it's time for Evan to get ready for bed.

Anyhow, tonight we fly to Florida to see Sheila. We had this short trip booked a month before John passed away, thinking he may be ill but not gone yet. But, it's a great thing we had it booked already because this will be good for her. Mandy and Andy went a few weeks ago, so she had these two trips to look forward to.

We're excited to get away, and to go to the beach, and to spend time with Sheila. We leave this evening from Ft. Wayne, at 7:20pm and get into St. Pete/Clearwater at 9:40pm.

I will add some pictures to this post. Again, our apologies for such a lag in posts!

Misty

Picture Post!!

Evan and Davin...this is while Mandy was spinning them around on Grandma Sheila's computer chair. We had tried to get nice pictures of them several times before this one happened.

His first skinned knee!! It's a rite of passage, I think! This probably sounds weird, but it was soooo cute!!

Getting into Grandma's cabinets.

So cute...Evan is extremely excited to go "bye-bye." He brings us his shoes, and tries to put them on alot. He gets excited when we put his shoes and coat on. He knows that if he takes his hat off he can't go bye-bye.

Thank you for your prayers while we said goodbye to John. Sheila is coping, and having good and bad days, which of course is normal and expected. We had a short trip planned for the end of May, long before John passed so quickly, and we are looking forward to getting to see her again soon.

Joel, (Misty's brother) is having his 2nd surgery on Apr. 13th. It will be his 2nd of three surgeries to be done. Hopefully the next one will be another 6-8 weeks out. He has recovered so well from the last one. He looked wonderful when I saw him last...he has gained 12 lbs back and his bloodwork has finally come back in the normal range!!! He struggled so long with anemia and all that goes with that due to so much blood loss. But the doctors couldn't believe how well he's done.

I am still babysitting during the day, all week long. It is certainly not for me. I get so restless being in the house all day, but it is so much work to get the two of them out of the house together that it is not really worth it. (And his mom doesn't want us leaving the house) I'm always glad to get out, and always look forward to doing so, but it is at least a half-hour process to get them out the door. If you have two very young kids, and think this sounds excessive, PLEASE chime in...I must be doing something wrong!

Paul still enjoys his job at Kirtlan Automotive. He is also working very hard here at home to help me keep things in order, and going through years of stuff that has been laying around that had just never been filed or thrown away when it needed to be. He is working hard on our finances too...we're doing the Dave Ramsey program to make things a little easier on us down the road.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Misty

Long four weeks

It has been a long time since I've written, my apologies.
As I wrote a couple posts ago, Paul's stepdad, John, was told there wasn't much they could do for him in the way of treatment for his leukemia. However, shortly after that, he received the news that a match had been found for him for his bone marrow transplant. We were cautiously optimistic and prayed that he would be able to continue to the transplant. However, it was a Wednesday a couple weeks ago, March 4th I believe, that he was told he had two weeks, and unfortunately he passed away that Friday, March 6th. Paul and I drove to Nashville to fly out with Andy and Mandy. John's services were on Monday, and Paul and Andy flew out on Wednesday, while Mandy and I stayed with Sheila until Friday with the boys. We're all just wiped out and exhausted, but glad to be home from such a long week. Please keep Sheila in your prayers...she will be alone for the first time on Sunday evening.

I'm not sure what else to say, and I don't have any pictures uploaded from the last few months, so I have none to share.

Walk, walk, walk!

All he does is walk!
It is really nice, though. I feel like he can't get hurt as much if he gets out of my sight as he could when he was crawling, because he doesn't try to pull himself up on everything anymore. He LOVES to escape from the living room by pushing the toybox barricade that I've created out of the way.
He's been sick the last few days as well. Thursday he had a fever of 102 and last night 103. No other symptoms, though. Makes me nervous that it could be one of those dangerous things like meningitis. Pretty sure that's not it, because it would have gotten worse by now. Just my worry-overdrive kicking in!

Joel came home from Riley on the 11th, and is still recovering at home. He's getting used to the changes, but it is still quite an adjustment. It seems that he is feeling better and better every day! He's been to school for some half-days, and has been able to hang out with some friends this weekend.

I'll try to add some pictures in the next couple days.

Lots to report!

We have a lot to report, and unfortunately it isn't all good news. We have good, okay, and disappointing news.
First of all, the disappointing news...Paul's stepdad, John, who has been battling leukemia for several years now, has been given the disheartening news that there isn't much else they can do to battle his leukemia, except a couple new drugs that are still in the clinical trial phase. Those drugs become available in the next couple months, and they are going to try those. In the meantime, he is feeling decent but tired and a little weak. Please pray for him and Sheila, as they wait for these new treatments. We all are, of course, scared and pretty upset by this news, but definitely appreciate the prayers. We pray we get to visit them soon.

Next, the okay news: My brother Joel, who has been battling ulcerative colitis for the last six months, is now recovering from the surgery that has resulted from it. In the last month and a half, he has received 18 blood transfusions and tried every drug imaginable to try to avoid having the surgery, but ultimately did have his entire colon removed. He is in the hospital right now at Riley Children's hospital, and is experiencing a tough recovery. The surgery was Friday, and he is in much better spirits and feeling better physically, but it is a tough recovery and he still has two more phases of surgery, occurring over the next 4 months, to get through. He was very very ill last week. (Which is the reason for the lack of blogging...I've been on the phone alot in my free time!)

Last, but not least...the good news! Evan has said his first word, "bread," is now trying his best to use WALKING as his main method of getting around, and is doing so well they tried to kick us out of his therapies!!!! Which, of course, was my greatest hope and worst fear...I still need those people to watch him! But, he does still qualify based on his gestational age at birth (26 weeks).
So, you must watch his new video below, entitled "Skinny Man Walking." Forgive the nakedness...he got away from me while changing his clothes and was so happy that I figured I could get a good shot of him walking, and I did!