It has been a while….

Well for those of you who don’t know, my life has been a roller coaster for the last 5 months.  On February 16th my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  The day after that my dad got a really bad infection on his right hand.  He was treated with sulfur antibiotics which he has never been allergic too before.  After about a week on the drugs treating the infection, he had a SEVERE allergic reaction which lead us to carrying him to LMH because if we hadn’t the doctors told us he could have died.  He has been formally diagnosed with Steven-Johnson’s Syndrome which in result caused him to lose eyesight to both eyes from the severe allergic reaction to the sulfur drugs.  I know all this information may lose you but this has been what my family has been going through.  My mom underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor which was benign (PRAISE THE LORD) and she stayed in Pitt Memorial Hospital for 16 long days.  Whenever all this began with both of my parents I took the FMLA from work for 12 weeks and moved in with my parents to take care of them.  My dad has had 3 amniotic membrane transplants to both of his eyes to help with healing and restoring his eyesight and countless eye drops around the clock.  Both of my parents have been through more than I can still fathom.  You just never know what life will throw at you and I am blessed to have been able to take care of them.  I never knew that I had the strength I had until God put me in this situation.  My walk with Christ has grown so much and I now realize just how blessed we are and how much one person can take if they have faith in GOD.  During these 3 months I was separated from my husband and child only seeing them at night when Jamie would come to my parent’s house for a couple of hours.  This was one of the hardest things besides my parents being sick for me to cope with.  My husband and my son are my life and I felt like God was ripping me into a million pieces because of the situation we were going through.  I never knew how tough I was until now.  I give all the glory to God and I praise him for giving me the strength to have made it over the mountain that I climbed.  My parents are doing some better but continue to fight each and every day.  My mom has a bad headache everyday from the surgery and she also has 2 mechanical valves and a pacemaker and battles congestive heart failure daily.  My dad is very blessed to have 20/30 vision back in his right eye.  His left eye is in very bad shape and is sewed closed as of right now for a while.  He will most likely have permanent scarring and damage to the left eye.  He is hoping to have his right eye contact bandage removed the next time he goes to Duke Eye Center.  Please continue to lift these two people up in your prayers.  My dad also found out that he has to have his gall bladder removed next Thursday.  My family and I had a benefit for my parents back at the end of June at Maynard's in Seven Springs with my brother’s band playing and we raised ALOT of money which my parents were so grateful for.  I know I am rambling and jumping around but I just wanted to let each of you know what has been going on in my crazy life the last 5 months.

I was able to return to work which I hated to leave my parents.  My life is semi-normal but I continue to go to my parents house each day when I get off of work and pick up Payton from daycare.  I feel better going over there and laying my eyes on them to make sure that they are okay. I have the BEST two parents in the world.  I know I am biased but I have 2 loving and  good Christian parents.  God has truly blessed me and my family and I am so grateful to him for all his many blessing upon me.

Here are some pictures of the last 5 months!   

Welcome Home sign I made for my mama

Daddy and Payton taking a good nap

My mama and her grandsons!

Easter 2010

 

Easter 2010 with my mama and daddy

Being a farmer’s son is hard work!

 

Me and my sweet boy!

Payton’s 2nd Birthday Party

I can’t believe he is two!

Handsome stuff

I love him to pieces!

Payton and Brody’s Photo shoot 8/7/10

My favorite one of Payton

Tobacco Farming with Daddy!

Praise be to God for all the BLESSINGS in my LIFE!!!

~Mindy~

Meeting Winston and Snow of 2010

My mother-in-law got a new addition to her family last weekend.  She now has the most adorable puppy named Winston.  Nana came over Friday night to introduce Winston to our family and to bring over Payton’s Valentine’s present. Payton certainly enjoyed meeting Winston and wanted to hold him all the time.  It was really cute.

Meeting Winston for the first time

Kisses from Winston

Lots of love from Winston

Opening his Valentine’s present from Nana

Later that night after Nana left the BIG snow of 2010 began.  I took a couple of pictures of Payton trying to catch the snow from the back door.  He ran around the house and saying “SNOW” ma-ma.  When we woke up Saturday morning it was a blanket of snow everywhere.  We enjoyed taking Payton out to play and made a snowman.  Payton really enjoyed the snow and would have stayed out all day in it if we would have let him!

Catching snow from the back door

Our doggy Jaida in the snow

About 3-4 inches in different places

Taking this all in

Payton was in awe of the snow :)

Our home in the snow

Fixing to throw a snow ball at mommy!

This is good snow mommy!

Sitting on my snowman

Mommy and Payton

Eating snow cream with Papa.

 

~Mindy~

This and That

This post is a combination of a little bit of this and that.  Last weekend Jamie and I were invited by my cousin Joey to go stay with him down in Charleston where he was working at a Boat Show.  So my mother-in-law and my parents kept Payton for us one night each and it all worked out perfect! Jamie and I had a great time just getting away from every day life and enjoying the beautiful scenery of Charleston.  We had a great time with my cousin also and shared many wonderful memories together.  Here are a few pictures from our fabulous weekend.

 

Jamie and Joey at Tidetamer Waterfront Products Booth

Pretty view of the Boat Show

Me and my husband

Me and my cousin Joey

Chillin at the boat show

Now these next few pictures are of my cute little monkey brushing his teeth which he is very independent when he does this.  I thought these were sweet!

Big Boy brushing his teeth

His hair was so cute!

The next few pictures are of all the ICE that we got early Saturday morning instead of snow.  We have had a couple of days inside and we are ready to get out of this house a little bit!

Our carport with some pretty icicles

My flag was froze to our porch rail which was pretty cool looking

Our Boxers Bella on the left and Josie on the right

Mindy

My Birthday

Well tomorrow is my birthday which just simply means I am just another year older. It seems like just yesterday I was 18, 21, or just turning 23.  Oh well life happens and we get old right?!  I can’t believe I will be 26 years old which I know is a little closer to thirty(yikes).  I can’t complain because I am truly blessed to first of all know that I am saved by God’s grace, I have a wonderful husband, a healthy beautiful child, and a good job that provides for my family.  I really have so much to be thankful for and I just wanted to share some of my birthday presents that I get to have all year long: MY FAMILY!!!

 

~Mindy~

 

18 Months

Well Payton was eighteen months on January 4, 2010 but I am just getting around to blogging about his doctor’s visit and things that he is up to now.  The older he gets the better he is getting  about his well-baby visits and having less meltdowns when the doctor comes in or when you start taking his clothes off to weigh him.  Talk about a stressful thing for a mommy!!

Dr. P said Payton is right on target with everything and once again he was way impressed with his talking and everything that he was doing.  He had to get 3 shots which were no fun but after the nurse had finished giving him the 3 shots in his legs he stops crying and looks at me with a broken heart and says one of his famous words “DONE”! I said, “Yes sweetie that nurse is DONE with hurting my sweet boy!”  I just love him to pieces and he is learning so much and comes up with words out of no where! 

Right now he is simply a busy little boy who loves to climb, dance, and does NOT watch TV.  For the life of me I can not believe that he does not like to watch TV or cute kids DVD’s.  The only thing he enjoys watching is the Your Baby Can Read DVD with words, pictures, and songs.  I am kind of glad that he doesn’t like to watch a lot of TV because the doctors are always so against TV. 

Here are his stats from his 18 month visit:

Weight: 20 lbs. 8 oz. (1 %)

Height: 31.5 inches (26%)

Head Circumference: 47.5 cm. (41 %)

This is my little man now!

This is my little man a year ago!

~Mindy~