Derrell update

Derrell is still improving daily. They are thinking right now that he may be able to go home next week. This is just amazing! He will however have some very extensive home care. They are still working with his kidneys and still not sure of the complete damage there and he still struggles some with his breathing. He has been up and moving around, back to a normal diet and seems to be handling everything pretty well. I wish that we all lived a little closer.....Ft. Myers is so far!! Although, I would rather be there than here....I'm so sick of this freezing weather! I sure hope that groundhog was right and only 6 weeks till spring...well, like 5 now right? I'll be counting for sure :)

Wat Up

Never have two little words meant so much! This is the text I received from my nephew Derrell yesterday. I was so excited to hear from him. Just that he was awake, breathing on his own and starting to get back to a little bit of himself.




Today starts his 4th week in the hospital. He has come so far since we got that first call that he was having kidney failure. What we thought was just something gone terribly wrong, turned into a very scary diagnosis of Wegeners granulamatosis. Just 2 weeks ago we weren't sure he would make it, not only were his kidneys failing, but his lungs were shutting down as well. They decided to put him to sleep while they worked on him. Each day they cleaned his blood, and lungs and the machines did all his breathing and kidney functions.

We tried not to be overwhelmed with this news, we just prayed that God would get him through.

Today, he is breathing on his own, he is up, eating regular food and complaining about being bored and wanting to go home. Music to our ears! We have prayed and asked everyone we know to pray and we are seeing God at work. I know that He is mindful of us and He still preforms miracles today.



We don't know what to expect with this illness, we are just trusting God with his life. He still has a battle ahead to fight, just keep praying for our little buddy, he means so much to our family!

I didn't escape it.....

I think I'm almost at the end of yet another sinus infection. I am so tired of getting these......this is the 4th time in the past few months that I've struggled with one. I knew I would get it, everyone that I've been in contact with over the past couple weeks has been sick. I'll be so glad when the both of us get back to being healthy.....I've been wanting to spend time at home...but not like this!

While I've been home sick, my friend Erin had her baby! She was 5lbs 13ozs and 18 inches long. They named her Vada Jolee. I haven't been able to visit her yet, didn't want to chance getting her sick....but I can't wait to see her. Congratulations to them!

Hello 2011!

Happy New Year friends and family! We are eight days in and time is flyin'! We have spent most of this week home...Patrick has been sick all week. Although, staying in has not been too bad. We did a lot of visiting and running over the holidays and we needed some time to regroup. I think he is feeling better now and I'm praying that I don't end of with it....I've already done that about 3 times this fall!!

We had a great Christmas with everyone......we started the Sunday before Christmas with Jason, Dana, Josie, Ava and Travis.





Josie and Ava are growing up so fast! They are really such sweet girls and we love spending time with them.







Here we are trying to get a pic with Macy....she's not having it!




On Christmas day we all headed to mom and dad's.......

"The Boys"



Me and Jere..







James, Kris, Jacob & Hannah....& Sugar








On New Years day, we all got back together to visit with Larry & Dawn and then we celebrated Josh's birthday.......



Alex made him a really cool cake!

Mom un-decorated her tree and Dawn created a birthday tree.....which was pretty cool!







Oh yeah...Barney came too...he visited with Macy!



Now everyone has gone home.....we miss you guys! It was really great seeing everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit with us!

Our baby is 21!!

I can't believe she is 21!




Where does the time go. It seems not that long ago she came into our lives....I loved her so much, I would pretend she was mine when I would babysit her! By the time she was 5 or 6, I was sharing a home with her and we would fight like sisters...(I was a little immature for a 19 year old!) As she got older our relationship would change from time to time....sometimes it felt like having a little sister, sometimes I felt almost like a 2nd mom. Now, as she has become a really great young lady, she is my very best friend! She is as beautiful on the inside as she is out (I know, hard to believe...she is sooo pretty.) She is a big time family person, so caring....sometimes we tease her that she acts older than us (we just get mad because she is smarter than we ever were!) I love her so much and I am so proud of her!










What are you goin' do with those shoes!!



Her first "little blue box" from Rebekah and Mark.

Happy 21st Birthday Alex.......you rock!

Our Christmas Tree

With every holiday I always have that one little favorite thing, and for me at Christmas, it's all about the tree! We go out every year and find a beautiful real fraser fir. Each year it has a little different character and size, but we always say, it's the prettiest one yet (even if it's not;)

I love going through all my ornaments. To me it's almost like going through pictures...each one has some memory of a place we've been or a gift that someone gave...some are from the many fun ornament exchanges we had at Sharon's each year.




This ornament I bought in Paris, when Alex and I went to visit James, the other is the first ornament that Pat and I bought for our first tree!



Once the tree is up, I love to just sit and look at it....the room just has a warm glow!

.....and that's November

This month has been filled with birthdays, family get togethers, lots of eatin' and fun ball games! It didn't feel like a typically November to me, I guess the weather has been so warm it doesn't seem like it could be this late in the year. Although, we are getting some cold weather now! It's been misting snow off and on all day today.

The ending of this month just reminds me that Christmas will be here in know time at all. I'm starting to get a little excited about putting up a tree...I guess we will work on that this weekend. I love the feeling of my house when it's all spruced up for Christmas.

Here are a few pictures from Joe's birthday and Thanksgiving. I have to say, my remembering to take pictures has been just awful lately. I didn't get any good pictures of the Glotzbach Thanksgiving we hosted at our house. I'm going to try to do better with this through Christmas!




Alex baked Joe cupcakes for his 40th......