Baby Love!

It has been torture to wait and share this on here, but I'm thrilled to say that Joel and I are expecting our first baby December 18. We went to the doctor today and got to hear the little heartbeat. So amazing! It's felt real for me for a while, but this was big for Joel! Amazing!

Garden

Since we bought our house, over 6 years ago, we've talked about putting in a garden, but it never came to fruition. Last summer, some good friends of ours had a garden and I got to go pick green beans from it. They had way more than they could eat. Fresh picked, home-grown green beans are the best! I even had extras to freeze that we enjoyed this winter. So, because of this, we decided to finally get off our buns and get a garden planted! We prepared in the fall and covered the area we were going to plant with mulched leaves, newspaper and tarps to kill the grass and fertilize the soil...

This is what it looked like this spring.

Last weekend, Joel and I worked to get it all ready, tilled up and a fence around it to keep out the critters...including our dog. :) This week, we got all of our goodies planted.

Onions, broccoli, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash. Can't wait to see everything start to grow!

I don't have a picture of it, but we also put in a rain barrel, so we don't have to pay as much to water the garden...always thinkin! :o)

Home

Mom has now been home for 4 days and it's amazing to see how much she improves everyday. I think it's going to be a longer recovery than she anticipated. It's going to take a lot of time to build her stamina up again. I know she's struggled with having much of an appetite, which is hard, since she knows she needs to be eating; especially a lot of protein to get her body back into tip top shape. So, prayers that she continues to heal, begins to want to eat more, and that she stays positive in her recovery. I know she's going to have times of feeling down, but we're all so thankful that she's here with us and we look forward to a few weeks from now when she's feeling better than she did before the surgery. Mom, you're the best! Love you tons!

Happy Mother's Day

Having your mom go through a very serious surgery, makes you even more thankful for her on Mother's Day! Joel and I enjoyed a beautiful day with our moms. We started out with brunch at a local golf club with his Mom. The food and company was great. :)

The ladies. :)

...and a pic of my honey and I. :)

I got to take a nice nap at home before heading up to the hospital to visit mom. She's doing so great! We were originally told that Tuesday would be the earliest she could come home, but she's doing so great, there's a chance she could come home tomorrow!! She struggling right now with holding onto a lot of the fluid they pumped her full of, so as long as that goes down, she's home free! All of us kids had bought her a new mother's ring at Christmas which was pretty pricey, but decided we couldn't get away with getting her nothing this Mother's Day, so we surprised her with a simple silver heart necklace symbolizing her life-changing surgery and how much we love her. :) She really liked it. 

Can you believe she had open heart surgery 3 days ago?! She looks awesome!

Happy Mother's Day! Give your moms an extra big squeeze today!

Mom Day 2

I got to spend time at the hospital with mom today. She was moved from the surgery recovery room to a normal room around 9 a.m. She didn't have to go into ICU at all, which was awesome! They got her out of bed and helped her walk to her wheelchair to move her, brought her upstairs and she walked a few feet to sit in a chair. She sat in a recliner for about 4-5 hours napping on and off. Around 2, she decided to try and lay in the bed and nap, but was pretty uncomfortable with the drainage tubes she still had in. I talked to my dad a while ago and she got two of her tubes out which helped a ton! She also ate some dinner, so we're hoping she is able to get a good night's sleep tonight. We were amazed to see how well she was doing just a day after surgery and are excited to see her improve each day. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers!

Such a great pic from my sister's wedding this summer. :)

Mom's Surgery

My mom went in for her heart surgery today. They told us to expect at least a triple bypass, but she ended up with a quintuple bypass. It was a really long day waiting on updates from the nurse, but she pulled through with flying colors!

Surgery started around 7 a.m. this morning and we got to go back and see her in recovery around 3 this afternoon. She was still sleeping and on a breathing tube, which was really strange to see, but we were prepared for it. I came home for a bit and brought Joel back with me and we got to see her awake. She got the breathing tube out already and was pretty groggy, but we could totally see her personality coming through! She was in a lot of pain, so they're working on figuring out meds that will work and we left so she could get some rest. I'll be spending the day at the hospital again tomorrow with her. She'll be there for 5-7 days with 4-6 weeks off of work after that.

We are all sooooo thankful for doctors, nurses, etc. who God has blessed with amazing gifts to perform these types of operations. It's really amazing when you think about the advances in medicine in the past several years. We are also so completely blessed with the best family and friends in the world! We know we had tons of people praying for mom today and we could feel it! We knew that she would pull through it. I also know that we have all of these people praying for her as she recovers, and we know it will help her get through the pain. Thank you to all of you! We couldn't ask for more!

Love you Mom! Can't wait to have you around for another 50 years!

Update

Joel pointed out last night that it's been a while since I updated...man, is he right! Sorry everyone. :) I guess this time of year just gets crazy, but I'll try to catch you up on some things I've been thankful for over the last few weeks.

Last week, I was blessed to be able to go to the national Council for Exceptional Children conference outside of Washington, D.C. It was great to spend time with tons of professionals in the area of special ed. I learned some new things I could bring back to my students, but also felt validated for some of the things I've been doing with my kids. It's always a great feeling when you know you're doing something the right way. :)

Over the last several days, I've finally felt like spring is on the way! Joel and I were able to spend the weekend doing some projects around the house. Cleaning out the garage and the first lawn mowing of the season; I LOVE mowing the yard. The OCD person in me loves the crisp lines left behind and the neat edging along the sidewalk. I'm not afraid to admit it. :)

Along with spring coming, I can officially say I'll be on summer break next month. :) Only 6 weeks left of school. I'm amazed every year at how quickly the school year goes and especially at this point, it's going to fly by! Our school gives away a scholarship to a former student at our 8th grade recognition each spring and I'm on the committee to help choose the recipient. I was going through the applications today and realized that the kids who are now graduating High School, were in 8th grade my first year at my school. Wow! It's crazy how 5 years has flown by!

Finally, my mom will be having bypass surgery this week Thursday. Some of you may be thinking, how in the world is this something to be thankful for?? Well, through a series of rather 'random' events, the blockage around her heart was discovered. We are all extremely thankful that this was found before she could have had a heart attack! I'm also thankful for living somewhere where we have an amazing heart center and talented doctors who will have her feeling better than she even knew she could. So, if you could all keep my mom, our family and friends in your prayers, I would really appreciate it. We're looking forward to the surgery being completed successfully and hopefully having mom come home for Mother's Day.

I'll do my best to keep up with my posts so you don't have to read a novel each time I post. :) Enjoy the spring weather!