Bonfire Blast

The best way to get out of a funk, at least in my opinion is to have a family get together. So I decided a few weeks back to have a bonfire at my house for Charlie, Ivan and Austin’s birthday, plus any other October birthdays out there. It was great but there was one bad thing was that Diane, Mike &Kim, Jim & Shannon, Mercedez, Hunter, and Ryan, Kevin & Caryn and Grey were not there with us. The weather was absolutely B-E-A-U-tiful! Plus I got to finally meet my great niece, Anna Belle. Yes it was worth the wait. I know I am biased but she is so B-E-A-U-tiful! Herbie and Betty Mae’s family is so blessed.

Some highlights for me…

• Bird walked over to my house in her new walker
• Did Turtle ever find any turkey mites in the grass?
• Seeing Anna Belle
• Watching Mama drink Billy Ray’s wine and being blinded by his jacket
• Happy birthday, Reggie you are Mama’s DD
• The crew deep-frying turkey on the basketball court
• Rod stoking the fire every 15 minutes
• The professional throwing style of Bob Cat, pictures available on Ebay
• Kids, kids, and more kids running amuck…oh the laughing and screaming
• The fire surrounded by straw bails and chairs and a whole lot of conversations
• The food! Thanks Kim, Mama, Sharon, and Ivan!
• Doing a shot of Gran Patrone Platinum with Zane, Happy Birthday, Wow that was smoooooth, Holy Shit how much did you say that tequila costs?
• Where did those kids get that toilet paper?
• Survivor - Morgan Corner
  Kids find a cricket
  Jimmy G. crunched it then down it went
  So do you think Emily kissed him good night?
• Stories, stories, stories and more among family and friends :)
• Sitting on Dad’s glider, holding Turtle watching her look at everyone and the fire
• Last ones left around the fire was Charlie, Keith, Ivan and me

Enjoy the picture slideshow below. :)

Bonfire Blast Pics....Enjoy :)

Owen Update...God is Great!

Update from Owen's Mom....

First and foremost, let me just say again how much we appreciate everyone's thoughts, prayers and support throughout this ordeal!!!! It has helped us so much to know people have been behind us and that we and Owen are so loved! For those of you who haven't heard, we got the most awesome news yesterday, that the mass they saw on the MRI was NOT a tumor as they suspected. The doctor has informed us that it appears to be 'white matter' and is calling it a 'lesion'. In fact, he corrected me when I asked him if the tumor was the reason why Owen was having the seizures. His response was "I'm almost 100% sure that the LESION is the cause of the seizures." As for what happens now we don't really know. He is going to meet with us this afternoon after we get the pathology results back to confirm his preliminary diagnosis. He said if it's white matter they have to determine why it's there and what, if anything, we need to do now. Matt and I both feel very strongly that it is no coincidence that this is the result, but rather that God's hand has been on Owen since this horrible ordeal started and that He has given us a miracle. I'm not sure where many of you are on your faith journeys, but ours has certainly been strengthened to a whole new level with this outcome!!! When we met with Dr. Leonard on Thursday, he was pretty positive that the image they were seeing was a tumor, and told us he had shown the film to 3 other doctors in hopes that one of them would disagree, but they were all in agreement that it did appear to be a tumor. One of the other neurosurgeons we spoke to on Monday before Owen went in for surgery said that based on the MRI and the growth he thought worst case scenario is that it would be a Level 2 Tumor. Honestly my best case scenario I was hoping for was a level 1 tumor, based on our meeting with Dr. Leonard on Thursday. He is a leading neurosurgeon and is very active in R&D, and the dr. we spoke with before O's surgery said he would discuss with us the possibility of saving some of the tumor if we approved so they could use it for research purposes. Of course we were ready to agree to that in order to find answers in hopes of sparing more families of having to go through this nightmare. Anyway, my point is this. Matt and I had everyone we know praying for us, and so many people passed that on to their friends and church families that we believe there were hundreds of people praying for Owen's health and healing, and we believe God answered those prayers. What a glorious day, and it was the BEST birthday present Matt could have ever asked for (yesterday was his b-day).
Anyway, I'll get off my religious soap box now, :), and let you know that Owen is doing well. He has been on morphene for the pain, so he was pretty much out of it all day yesterday. This morning he woke up for probably almost 2 hours and was very alert and in a better mood. He has been a trooper through all of this!!! We have discovered that through all of these MRI's and everything that he is quick to come out of sedation and is MAD when he wakes up. Normal routine coming out of surgery is for them to move the patient to a bed, roll them to recovery and once they move them to the ICU the parents are called back. They called us yesterday and asked us to come into recovery with him because he was fighting mad!! When the picked him up from the operating table to move him to his bed, he REFUSED to lie down, so they had to carry him, kicking and screaming, to the recovery room. The charge nurse in recovery told us when we got back there that they brought him in and put him on the bed to get all his lines hooked up and everything that he "Mopped the floor" with three of her nurses so they decided they better call us back! LOL SHe was laughing about it and actually said it's a very good thing for them to wake up and be active and alert like that. So we got to recovery and I sat on the bed and held him in my lap and he immediately calmed down and relaxed. They ended up rolling us to the PICU with me on the bed holding him. He's been doing great since then though. WE can tell that he is having some pain sometimes, but they are still giving him morphene. Once he starts eating they will switch him to Tylenol with codine for the pain. So far he hasn't had much interest in eating though. We wouldn't even touch the red popcicle they gave him. Today they will be removing the catheter, areterial line and the IV that is in his foot. He'll have one IV in his left hand still so they can administer meds, and they will be taking the bandage off of his head. They only had to shave a small section, so it won't be too noticable. He's moving out of PICU to a regular room today, and if he's eating, peeing and pooping ok they will let us bring him home tomorrow. There's barely any swelling at all. Amazing!

Thanks for all the support...Owen came home today.. :)

Prayer's for Owen

Got an email from my cousin, Lynetta and her little grandson Owen is having surgery Monday morning at 7:30 AM at Children's Hospital in St. Louis. An MRI found a tumor on his brain. She say they are all heartbroken but remain faithful he will have a healthy recovery. Owen is two yrs. old and will turn 3 on the 21st of this month.

Please keep him in your prayers.

Found this on the net...

Sticky fingers ' tangled hair, scattered crayons, everywhere.
Fancy artwork ' on the wall ' drawn by midgets ' three feet tall.
Tell me why ' and tell me how ' that was mine ' I want it NOW!
Fix my bike. Buy me gum. If you have it, I want some.
Dirty faces, grass-stained knees, learning words ' like pretty please.
Endless hugs & goofy wet kisses, learning respect with 'Mr.' & 'Mrs.'
Scraped-up hands, from falling down. Tender tugs - - on my night gown.
Need more paper ' for Santa's letter? I wasn't so bad ' but I've been better.
Watching a movie ' again and again ' Mommy, please ' put the tape back in.
Messy fingers ' hair gone wild ' all in the life ' of a precious child !!
By Debra S. Higginbotham