Some Gave All

 

On this special day take time to remember those who have made great sacrifices that we may have freedom.  And say a prayer for those that continue to serve all around the world!

 

If not family members, we all know someone who currently serves, or has served our country.  Take time to say thank you to these wonderful people! 

 

Meet my brother, Constantine.  He is currently serving with the Navy in South Korea.  Thanks, bro….I am very proud of you, I miss you a lot, and I love you! 

 

 

 

 

I am proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men and women who died, who gave that right to me!

 

All gave some, and some gave all.

 

 

Thank you, thank you very much

I just want to start out by saying thank you to my faithful readers and followers. Don't worry, this is not a dear John letter. I just want to take a moment to recognize you and let you know I appreciate you greatly!

This blog started out as an endeavor for family and friends to keep up with us, and along the way I have met some really great people. People whose blogs I follow and vice versa. I never dreamed in a million years that I would have official “followers” that are not slightly obligated family members.

All of you bloggers know the validation of receiving comments. So thanks to y’all who take the time to validate my existence in the blog world. It means so much!

My posting has been kind of sparse lately and my creativity lacking. I apologize for both. The blog is the thing that goes to the back burner first when things get busy. And something tells me you folks don’t want to hear about my day at work in the operating room.

Like most bloggers I am always thinking about and looking for a great blog post, but sometimes I find myself stressing over it. I’m sure BooMama and BigMama don’t have this problem. And, NO, I am certainly not comparing my dinky little blog to theirs.

I am just going to quit letting myself stress out over this blog and write when the spirit moves me to write. It might be as little as 2 or as many as 5 days a week. I hope you’ll stick around.

So without further babbling, which I can do with the best of them, I just want to give a hearty thank you to my GRITS peeps… family, real life friends, and even my bloggy friends are included. Your visits and comments are what inspires me to continue!

God is SO good

 

First I would just like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who stopped by here and left such kind words of encouragement, for lifting me and my family up in your prayers.  It meant so much to me. 

 

I wanted to let you know that Yaya came through her surgery without any major complications.  She is currently in the ICU and will remain there throughout the weekend so she can be watched carefully.

 

Your prayers were truly felt as I sat in that waiting room.  It’s quite different being on the other side of a patient having heart surgery.  I am used the one being in the operating room, NOT in the waiting room.

 

At one point, we were taken to the conference room to meet with the surgeon when a surgeon’s assistant came to inform us that they had to reopen Yaya’s chest because her blood pressure had dropped.  And we were sent back to the waiting room for what seemed like eternity.

 

Let me tell you, I was StRessEd!  Her explanation made NO sense to me.  This was the point that a little bit of knowledge was a dangerous thing. 

 

And about this time the Greek priest showed up.  I panicked on the inside.  Did God send him here or did he coincidentally show up during this seemingly critical time.

 

We all sat and waited, but not without the wringing of hands and serious fidgetiness.  I know a lot of silent prayers went up from my chair!  A lot.

 

But a little over and hour later, the handsome Greek surgeon with the nice accent came to tell the family the surgery went great, and the unstable incident was short and not serious!  He also spoke to me in MY (nurse) language and I felt good about it all.

 

We saw her in the ICU briefly and, of course, I had to eyeball all the monitors and ask a few pertinent (to me) questions.  I was satisfied with all her numbers and the answers I received from the ICU nurse. 

 

I definitely felt at peace as I left the ICU.

 

I would greatly appreciate your continued prayers as Yaya now enters the recovery phase.  She has always been a very independent and strong woman!  Please pray for good pain control, good healing of her surgical wound, and the return of physical strength.  

Blessings to you all!

Giving thanks, family style

Greetings blogging friends and family!

I am back from taking a much needed week long break. I can’t say I am well rested, but just getting away from the regular ol’ grind and work was so nice.

There were five kids in the house; their ages: 9, 8, 7, 5 and almost 2. My Princess is the ONLY girl, and she prefers to serve cheese with her whine, unlike the boys.

As you can imagine, it was non-stop playing with occasional arguing. Over important things like what movie was going to be watched or who was going to be player 1 on the Wii. Sheesh, if that was my only worry in the world.

We began our week of giving thanks by joining my two oldest nephews at their school for lunch:

We also enjoyed my middle nephew’s class Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday. I took this sweet little face to the “buffet” THREE times:

My sister and brother-in-law are both on staff at the school and stopped by for a photo opportunity.

The Princess was thankful to spend excessive amounts of time on the trampoline, as evidenced by the LARGE amounts of static electricity in her hair:

Me being a lifetime scientist, had to verify the presence of such electrical currents (only after emptying my bladder, of course):

Funny how a 40 year old on a trampoline brings out the masses to join in the fun:

Thursday, we were joined by a surprise guest for our Thanksgiving feast. Mr. GRITS drove down to surprise the kids and spent Thursday and part of Friday with us before having to return for work on Saturday:

Raise your hand if you remember years of sitting at the official “kids table”:

The hubby and I had a little bonding time with our youngest nephew, Jackson. We had to convince him that we are as cool as his brothers think we are. Mission accomplished, I think:

*WARNING* Auburn fans, look away now.

As some of you may not know, it was college football rivalry week here in Alabama. Saturday we enjoyed, for the first time in the last 7 years, watching Alabama beat the Auburn Tigers 36-0.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

12 - 0, bay-bee!

We’re #1!!

Despite the fact we were slap dab in the middle of Florida State country, we all donned our ‘Bama garb. We even took the kids out for breakfast despite the fact the city was packed with people for the Florida/FSU game.

Here’s the next generation of Alabama football fans:

I even had my special ‘Bama ‘fro going on, thanks to the FL rain and humidity:

So, now we all have to get back to our regular routines and I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging. I hope you all had as much fun at your Thanksgiving get together as we had at ours.

(btw, I created my sister a new blog header….go here to check it out and maybe we can encourage her to do a little more posting! I’d like us to be as famous as another family blogging duo—Queen B and Beachy Mimi)