A Quick Note about my Mom

Well, we got here and I got to see Momma Saturday morning. Her doctor told my dad that the preliminary results are good. She appears to have inflammation, not tumors or infection, but there is no answer to why. I was expecting her to be weak from surgery and possibly in pain, but she is not really in any pain. I was pretty sad when we left last night, because in the 8 or more hours I was up there, Mom made no progress breathing better. She has been on steroids for 6 days and she is not improving lung/breathing wise at all. I am so very thankful that she is not in pain and that she is feeling better, but she is not improving her breathing at all. She is breathing so shallow, and today the doctor tried to take down her oxygen intake and she had a pretty bad incident just going from the bed to the toilet 2 feet away. She had a good nurse in ICU that would get in her face and tell her to breath slow and deep, and also keep her honest about how she was doing, but her other nurses let her tell them that she is doing great and say things like "you are the best judge of how you are feeling." Really? She thought that her bathroom trip that her oxygen levels dropped so low was her best time up yet?!?! Does that sound like she knows how she is doing?

Please pray for her tonight and tomorrow. She is off of all of her monitors, which is so very scary to me. Now, no one will be alerted if she starts breathing poorly, and they only check her vitals every 8 hours! It is so insane to me that she doesn't have more supervision, and to make it worse, she is the farthest room from the nursing station that is on a different hall from her. I am going to have to trust that the Lord will watch over her and protect her. If not I will go crazy.

Brandon left today to go home, and I will be here until Mom is home and settled, which could be a long time (a week or two). I miss him, and I know it is so selfish and silly, but I hate being away from him. I won't go on and on, I know that my military wife friends would want to strangle me for being such a baby about being away from him. I just haven't been away from him since we got married for more than a day, so this is new and with my mom being so sick I miss him being here to support me.

I will try to post as soon as she comes home. It may be tomorrow. I do not know really what the goal is to get her home. Thanks for all the prayers and emails. They are a comfort beyond what you could imagine.

The Waiting Game Begins

Momma had her surgery this morning and is out and recovering. She will be in the ICU for at least 24 hours while they monitor her. They were able to get a good sample of tissue, so now we wait while they test it for everything under the sun. They were not able to tell anything by just looking at the sample, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I will be glad to see Momma when we get to Dallas, it has been really hard to be so far away.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts. Don't stop yet, we still need to find out what has taken over her lungs!

Update on Momma

Well, Momma will have her biopsy tomorrow (Thursday) morning. She will have a large section of lung removed to be studied. Well, I think that it is large, they told her it will be about the size of her thumb. She will have to remain in the ICU for at least 24 hours to watch her chest tube and monitor her breathing.

Please pray for her safety and for the surgeon's skill tomorrow. Unfortunately, the doctor's have very little clue what is going on with her. They have told her it looks like she was exposed to toxins for several years. That scares me because it could mean that the damage is long term. We all need a little comfort, especially my momma who is terrified of the surgery. I will post when I know more after her surgery tomorrow.

Brandon and I will be leaving to go see her Friday, even though she keeps telling me that we do not need to. This weekend is ACU's homecoming and we were planning on going to that, but I do not think that I would enjoy the festivities knowing that my mom is lying in a hospital bed.

Thanks for your prayers, as my anxiety level fluctuates, I am reminded that my friends are out there praying for her.

Now I just wish that we could have Hugh Laurie from House come and look at her! He would be able to figure out what is wrong!

Prayer Request

My mom has had pneumonia for about 4 weeks, and they put her in the hospital today. She has been at home with oxygen for about two weeks, and they haven't seen enough improvement. She seems to be in good spirits, but I know that she really did not want to have to be hospitalized. My prayer is that she can get the medicine that she needs, and that she can recover quick. I ask for your prayers for my mom and dad. It is so hard being this far away from her and not being able to be there with her. It helps knowing that my friends and "webfriends" are praying for her recovery.

***UPDATE***

Well, after a sonogram they did to determine where they needed to drain Momma's lungs, they discovered there was no fluid. They did a CAT scan, and they now do not think that she has pneumonia. The doctor told her today that it looks like she has been exposed to toxins for an extended amount of time. They have scheduled a lung biopsy for tomorrow to see what it is that has infected her lungs. Please be in prayer for her and for our family. We are all a little startled by the news today. I will post as much as I can as soon as I can. Thanks again for your prayers.

We're Here!

Well, we are in Friona! Brandon started work Monday and has really enjoyed it so far. The only down side at this time is that we don't have DSL yet, so I haven't been able to check my email or keep up with my blogging. Hopefully we will get hooked up soon, but until then please do not be upset if I take a long time to respond. Thankfully we have wonderful friends that will let us use their internet while we sit on their couch and watch their satellite(we decided to downgrade for the time that we are in the apartment, so I miss my channel guide and DVR).

I am really looking forward to our life here in Friona... it is so different, but I love the change. I have read 4 books in 4 days, and since Jamie works at the library, I have access to more than I could ever read. I know that at some point I will have to get busy on the business, but the lack of internet is a good excuse at this time. I have lots of pictures to show everyone, but I will have to wait until I can work on them from home. Take care!

On The Road Again...

Well, the Lord is working in very mysterious ways for Brandon and I. Brandon and I have been hoping that we could find a job for him that would provide us a little more stability and a little more freedom from working so much at The Wedding Cottage. We had no idea how this would happen, but we knew that it would have to be after Brandon graduated with his degree. Well, the week he was finishing up his classes Jamie and I were talking and she jokingly said that Greg (her husband) wanted Brandon to come work with him, but that she knew we wouldn't move out there. Why would we not move.... because they are in Friona, Texas, less that 60 miles from the New Mexico border, in a town with 4000 people. But, wouldn't you know that the Lord has a sense of humor! We were talking more about the position, the pay, the benefits, and suddenly we were talking seriously about the possibility. We let the boys talk for awhile, so that we were not planning their lives for them, and when it was all decided, we were moving to Friona... soon!!! Everything has fallen into place. Now, I will not say that our parents are excited for us, they all live within three miles of us now, but all our family agrees that this is an opportunity that we cannot miss. As of today, we are going to try and move the 20th of September, just in time for Friona's Maize Days celebration...a hometown parade and homecoming! What fun!

We are so excited, but we have a lot of packing to do before then. Brandon turned in his two week notice, and we have turned over all of our cakes and photography clients. We are going to continue doing photography in Friona, we are just going to change the name for a fresh start. We picked out Priceless Photography, and we have the website address www.pricelessphototexas.com, but the website isn't up yet. We are hoping to have our new phone numbers this week, and as soon as I have that, the website will go up! We are so very excited about all of this. We know that it will be a BIG change of pace for us... this will be the first time in years that I haven't been employed at all. I am going to possibly try and substitute teach or something, but I doubt I will work full time. That way I can take care of the photography business. I am so very excited about all the opportunities that are coming our way.

We covet your prayers while we transition. Brandon and I are looking forward to a little alone time, weekends off (a novel concept), and time to relax a little. We will post as the process continues. We will miss all of our family and friends in Dallas, but we will be back often to visit our families for holidays and such! Wish us luck!!!!

Some of my latest cakes

So I have gotten in trouble with my mom for not posting any new cake pictures in awhile, so here are some just for you Mom!








hope you enjoy!!!