Thursday Night Prayer Request

Mama called me earlier tonight to let me know that my Uncle Roy was being transported to UVA. Earlier today Mama received a call saying that Uncle Roy was missing and his family was looking for him. He was supposed to pick up his great-granddaughter from school, and never showed up. After frantically searching for him and contacting the local hospital several times, the family finally found him in the ER. He was in a very bad car wreck on the way to the school. The med-flight from our local hospital came to the scene to take both Uncle Roy and the other driver to UVA, but Uncle Roy refused to go. After being taken to the ER, he was transported tonight to UVA by ambulance. From what I understand, he has bleeding in his brain and is in very critical condition. Please keep Uncle Roy, his family, and the doctors and nurses who are working on him in your prayers. Uncle Roy's wife is my Aunt Margie, who you may remember has been very ill as well. This family has been through a lot lately and would appreciate it if you would keep them lifted up. Thank you!

Please Pray

There is a blog that I have followed for a little while now. More specifically, I had read about Eva on one of the other blogs I read and recently checked out Eva's own blog. I just adored her outlook and spunky personality, and read through her archives in about two weekends. She received a double lung transplant a couple years ago because of cystic fibrosis, and has been in chronic rejection for some time. A few months ago, Eva posted a vlog saying goodbye to her readers and friends because she was told that she'd be passing very soon. She's lived for a while since then.

Sadly for her family, she passed away this morning. I know they had time to prepare, but it can't be easy to let her go. But she can breathe now, and is at peace. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers. Eva made a huge difference to a lot of people, raised tons of money for Canada's cystic fibrosis charities, and educated so many people about her disease and organ donation. Thank God for her life, her honesty, and her spirit.

Still Kickin'

Hey, ya'll. We are still alive, I promise. I'm just currently suffering from a bad case of the Too-Much-To-Do-And-Not-Enough-Energys. My appointment with the guru last week went well, but I needed to do a repeat progesterone test today just to be sure that my ovulation was...wait for it...robust! Bear in mind that any doctor's appointment around here involves orchestrating Brian's schedule and the feeding and nap schedules of 5-6 kiddos. Yeah, I love to do that once a month, much less twice in a week. But it's worth it, right? Can I have a nap now?

I missed Thank God...It's Friday last week, I know. I'm occasionally a slacker like that, you may have noticed. Sometimes we don't have anything huge going on, and sometimes life is so crazy that it's Saturday morning before I realize that Friday is gone. Anyway, do me a favor and pray for Big P on Thursday. He's supposed to have his tonsils and adenoids out. Hopefully he'll feel better, speak more clearly, and snore a lot less once it's all done.

I hope to not be such a slacker this week. For some reason I can't just can't seem to drag it off the couch these days. Yesterday getting up and getting ready, going to church, having lunch with Brian, and grocery shopping (by 2 PM!) wore me out and necessitated an hour nap...and two hours of sitting around time.... If anyone sees my Get Up and Go, please send it home!

Tuesday, Tuesday

Today, please take some time to pray for MadHat76's grandfather. He will be facing surgery to place a stent in his kidney today, and is scheduled to begin chemotherapy and radiation later this week. Please remember to pray for their whole family, actually, and not just today.

Many apologies to the folks who read my last post with baited breath or tears. I didn't mean to string you along or keep you in suspense. But look at it this way: that's exactly what I had to deal with in "real time". Imagine if my appointment had been on a Friday, like it usually was during our last round of clinic visits. I never got blood work results until the following Monday (or Tuesday!) afternoons. Kind of sucks, doesn't it?

Sorry so short today. I'm hoping to spend nap time working on new slings for On The Turtle's Back (go! shop!), and am working on a few posts in my head.... We'll see when they shake themselves out. Have a good Tuesday!

Update from Monday

I've been meaning to write this for about two days. Unfortunately, I'm slow. So, here's the update from Monday's medical prayer requests:

MadHat76's grandfather came through his surgery safely. The doctors removed a mass and are testing it for malignancy. They also took x-rays to see if it had metastasized. Her grandmother's procedure went well. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Aunt Margie stayed overnight at UVA and is back home. No one seem to know what was up, but there's a possibility of a UTI and some further blood sugar issues. Either way, she's doing fantastic and is back home. Yay!

Please Pray

I received a text last night from MadHat76 requesting prayers. Her grandfather will be having a sonogram today and then exploratory surgery on his bladder. The doctors want to make sure he doesn't have cancer, so this is an urgent need. Please keep Shell and her family in your prayers, and check back either here or her blog (or both!) for updates.

UPDATED

Please also pray for my Aunt Margie. She was taken back to UVA this morning. We have no details so far.

Thank God...It's Friday!

This has been the strangest week! I used to get sick quite often. Once we moved out of our old mold-bomb of a house and into a nice, new, mold-free house I was able to start working on my immune system. Most of our lifestyle changes have been focused on improving our health in specific areas, and one of those is our immune systems. I don't want to have to depend on vaccinations, antibiotics, and modern medicine to prevent or heal illness. Instead our focus has been on strengthening and support our immune systems to do their God-given job. As we've switched to whole grains, grass-fed beef, raw milk, and local honey we've seen a great increase in our abilities to avoid illness and recover more quickly from whatever we do manage to catch. I'm not saying we don't get sick. Heaven knows we can both get a pretty good cold if it's going around! But it doesn't seem to linger, and I don't remember the last time I missed a day of work due to illness (piano lessons, yes. I don't choose to share germs with those families that don't have to come to our house). Last week, however, a tiny Typhoid Mary brought an evil germ into my house. Apparently my body immediately latched onto it and took it deeply to heart. I know because I can feel it burning in my chest!! I have been coughing since Saturday. A lot. I'm pretty sure it's not bronchitis, but it hurts nonetheless. So I've been lying low all week. Nothing much has gotten done except for daycare. I cancelled lessons, shifted any housework into "Merely Survive" mode, and temporarily forgot how to cook. Hack, hack, cough, cough, sniff. That's been my refrain for a week now. YaYa Princess said she was compulsively checking my blog yesterday in an effort to dodge work. Sorry, kiddo, I was too busy coughing up a lung to help you out on that! So, on the top of my prayer list this week is: may I please feel better soon!! (click that Typhoid Mary link -- interesting stuff!)

Thank God....It's Friday

Praises

• Brian is off work for 10 days! He needs a vacation, and plans on using it to accomplish some things around the house that have been needing attention for a while. I hope he has time to rest and relax, as well. In the middle of that vacation, he has a birthday, too!
• Aunt Margie is home! She's pretty much homebound now, so if you know her please stop by and visit. She'll certainly talk your ear off in the living room, but you're not liable to see her out and about any time soon.
• Mama's knees are officially released! Not from one another, not from her legs, but from the doctor. Yay for her!
• I don't want to jinx it, but it seems like the Provera might just work.....

Requests

• We're planning on going to visit Brian's family next weekend. We need good weather for that, since it's so far away and over several mountains.
• We're also planning on seeing Little Bro and Sweet Lizzy (hi!) this weekend to celebrate Brian's birthday and Lizzy's belated birthday. This wintery mix outside my window needs to clear up, post haste.

Have a great weekend!

Note to MadHat76: you crazy woman! Those are burp cloths for babies, not placemats! But now you've got me thinking.....

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Wow, this week was fast!! That in and of itself is a huge praise in my book. All too often we wish our lives away, hurrying the days along. I need to stop doing that, I know. But working a full week when you've gotten very, very used to three day weeks is hard! So I'm ready for a weekend and about 16 hours of sleep, spread over two days. Hellooooo, Friday!

Thank God...It's Friday

Praises

• The gossip on Facebook says that Aunt Margie is doing well.
• I got to meet Baby P yesterday, and he's just as sweet as you'd imagine a week old bundle to be.
• I finally got to talk to a nurse at our fertility clinic, and we don't have to do anything special to start trying to conceive again. Just take the Provera and start on the Clomid, and we're back in the swing of things. Let's hope that's a one-time deal and then we can get on with the actual baby part!
• I think we both had mostly good weeks at work. Huge praise there.
• I'm doing a decent job at maintaining my...not New Year's resolution per se, but rather my....conviction about how I want things to be? My attitude adjustment has stuck, with a few realignments here and there.

Requests

• The good news about starting to try again means lots and lots of drugs. Provera makes me tired and cranky. Clomid makes me just plain evil. I will be trying really extra super hard not to let this happen. I could use some prayers in that department.
• Still praying for a new job for Brian.
• In case you hadn't noticed, it's seriously cold outside. It's currently 18 degrees here, with a wind chill of 9 degrees. Imagine being homeless in this weather. Pray for the people that are, and do what you can to fix the problem.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Not Again

My aunt Margie is my Daddy's older sister. The third oldest in a family of nine, she was born on my Pappy's 21st birthday. She has a daughter and a son, four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. She's an absolute trip, and finally told me how to make ham pot pie over Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. Every time I make something for a Hill get-together, I'm hoping that Aunt Margie will like it. Praise from her is hard-won and always sincere.

Aunt Margie has a bad heart. And lungs. She's had two open heart surgeries and has been on oxygen 24 hours a day for several years. None of this has kept her spunky self down. She just took her portable oxygen tank and went on. Some days her snazzy, flowery cane is a "Ho Stick", other days a "Pimp Cane".

Unfortunately, Aunt Margie's heart and lungs are giving out very quickly. She went to UVA yesterday, and was not in good condition. Daddy was on the phone periodically through the day checking on her and making plans to visit. This morning, another sister, Aunt Elaine, called to let Daddy know that Aunt Margie is at death's door. She wasn't expected to live through last night, and has said she doesn't want to be on life support. Her daughter has been called back off from a vacation, and the family is being gathered. Aunt Margie is struggling to breathe, has almost no blood pressure, and is in pain. Please, please keep her family and ours in your prayers. Needless to say we don't want to do this. But more specifically we don't want to do this AGAIN. This has been the longest year of many of our lives (certainly mine) and I just can't wait for 2009 to be over. Please pray as you're led, and for more strength for an already very strong lady.

The Grinch

Has anyone seen my Christmas spirit? I seem to have misplaced it. I have a hunch it's in the very same place as my patience, my compassion, and my motivation. I haven't seen any of these in several weeks, so if you happen to find them, please send them back to me.

I'm serious, ya'll. It's been a bit ragged around the Baileys household lately. At first, I was stressed out from Mama's surgery and from having extra kids around the house. They filled up all the bedrooms and the front room and I couldn't do any cleaning at all during nap time. I don't like to leave the kids alone when they're playing, so that was out, too. Nothing got done around here and I was perpetually in a bad mood. Soon enough, though, I was back to my normal four kids each day with nap time to myself. Even the baby had the good grace to start taking normal naps almost instantaneously.

Then, Brian's work schedule kicked up for the holidays. If you've never been around us during the Christmas season, you can't really comprehend it. He works six to seven days each week, 11-16 hours each day. Most of the time he works from 1 PM until 12:30 AM, getting home just as I go to bed, provided I've been able to stay up that whole time. He comes to bed around 3:30 or 4 AM, usually turning the light on in the bathroom to brush his teeth. No big deal -- a man's gotta see, right? But I sleep facing the bathroom.... I get up around 7:15, and he sleeps until about 11 or 11:30 and starts the whole cycle again. If we're really lucky, he gets to open the store at 5 AM, or gets to go in at 7 AM, and gets home from either of those shifts around 6:30. On those nights we actually get to see each other. Work takes precedence over everything else, and the schedule is subject to change at a moment's notice. The only thing that keeps me sane is the knowledge that as much as I hate it, he hates it 100 times more. It's Sunday, at 11 PM, and he's at least two hours away from coming home. Strangely, being alone this much makes me irritable and depressed, and unmotivated to do anything at all. I don't like alone time. If I did, I'd still be single.

Because Brian is gone so much from mid-November through early January, all the Christmas prep falls to me. Usually I don't mind. Usually I revel in the whole Christmas thing, decorating and baking, crafting and shopping. This year, I didn't buy a single gift until sometime around Thanksgiving. Our tree has been sitting in our living room -- scratch that: laying in our living room in its big storage bag -- for over a week now. See, we have a little cat pee problem. Someone (we think Belle) is peeing along the baseboard. Not huge amounts, but really frequently. It seems to be an attitude issue. We've cleaned the carpet and walls and tried really hard to get rid of the smell, but she keeps doing it. Somehow she managed to get pee behind our bookshelf. All that needs to be cleaned before the tree can go up. It's December 6 -- at this point, why are we bothering?! Luckily, I have most of the shopping done that needs to be done. Of course, that's nothing for Brian's family since we don't see them until after Christmas, and a lot of the gifts we still have undone are ones that I'm making. Did I mention I need to make about 12 dozen cookies, too? Yeah. And a lot of candy. Meanwhile, I haven't packed up all of the Halloween decorations yet.... Did I mention I'm in a really bad mood like 99% of the time?

Today was no different. Things were going fine, and then they all went straight to hell in a hand basket. It's a long story, but several things went very wrong all at once. I lost it. I was not nice. I was definitely hateful to my husband, and to anyone else around me for a while. Why am I putting this out there? Because I have a hateful tongue, and I need to deal with it. I'm done hiding it, pretending that I don't, and I need some accountability. So here it is. Brian reads this sometimes, and all of my closest friends and not a small amount of family do. I have not been nice lately, and I need to fix that immediately, if not sooner. Keep me accountable, please. Even more important, please pray for my wicked sharp tongue and some self restraint. Lord knows I need it. Lately I'm overwhelmed by life itself, and when I get overwhelmed I get angry. I need to fix all this and get myself under control. I'll be cutting out a few things, cutting out some of my commitments, saying "no" more often, and trying to remind myself that the important things are those I do right here in this house, for my husband, to make it a better place to be and his soft place to land. Somewhere along the line I forgot that and started feeling entitled. It's time to find Simple again. Maybe then I'll feel like celebrating Christmas and being all warm and fuzzy. I sure hope so.

Success!

Short but sweet: Mama's surgery was a roaring success so far!! We said goodbye to her around 11 AM, and Dr. Pereles said that it would be approximately three and a half to four hours until he came to see us with a report. We hung out and talked, crackberried, and had lunch until 3:25, when Dr. Pereles let us know that Mama had done fine and was in recovery. After some mix-ups getting her correct room set up, we were able to join her there around 4:45. She was understandably groggy, shivering, and cold, but was alert and already installed in her Continuous Passive Movement Machine. She was able to eat a little bit of her dinner and keep it down, and we got her settled in and all her goodies unpacked and put away. She took a little percocet for the pain and we left her drifting back off around 7 PM. Little Bro will be with her tomorrow, Daddy will go by after work, and Brian and I will be joining her around 6:30 when I get off. I am amazed at her courage and strength so far, and can't wait until she is back up and around, enjoying her new legs!!

Thank you to everyone who joined us in prayer today, sent positive thoughts, called, or was with us in spirit. I know it means a lot to Mama, and it certainly does to me. Goodnight!

New Legs

Tomorrow is an important day in our family. Tomorrow, Mama gets her "new legs". Not entirely, of course. Tomorrow around 11:30 AM or so, Mama will undergo double knee replacement. She suffers from severe osteoarthritis, and has needed this surgery for about five years now. Tomorrow is the day!

We're not sure how long she'll be in-patient, and how long she'll need care once she arrives home, so things will be a little nutty around here for awhile. Hopefully I'll have more time to blog while I'm hanging out at her house, but I don't promise anything. I needed a little break for the past two weeks or so just to get some things taken care of, so I should be back in the blog-saddle soon.

Meanwhile, please keep my mama in your prayers. She's in for a long haul, but we're all so excited for her to have new legs!!

Update

As I made my way through my blog roll today, I was blindsided by some horrible news. However, it was not unexpected. I think every day that I checked out Maxey Web, I was secretly a little glad to find it not updated, and so very happy when I saw it updated with information about Annette. Today, though, was different. Yesterday was the last day here for this sweet little girl who endured so much. This family lost their first daughter as well, and I can't imagine how they'll cope or what they'll say to their son in the days to come. Please pray for them, go to their site and comment to let them know that you're thinking of them, and then go hug your babies and loved ones really tight.

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Crazy-busy August has given way to a slightly less crazy-busy September, and with it comes my favorite season of the year. I love Fall in such a big, big way. I am in my element in Fall, boy. I know I skipped a TG...IF last week. Too much was going on and I just didn't feel like it. No excuses, just didn't wanna. But here you go.....

Thank God...It's Friday

Praises

Thank the good Lord above for three day weekends. Especially when Brian actually gets all three days off as well!!

I turned 32 this past week. I'm thankful for the privilege of doing so.

My parents will have been married for 42 years this coming week. I have it on good authority that they married at 5 and 9 years old.... Thank God for them, the childhood they gave us, and for their example of stick-to-it-iveness and love.

Have I mentioned I'm immensely, amazingly, overwhelmingly thankful for my husband? Just making sure....

The slings I took to OTTB are selling!! Yay for supplemental income and validation!

Requests

Mama will be going in for surgery on September 30th to replace both her knees. Though she is quite attached to the pair she has now (hardy har, right?), I'm sure she'll love her new ones even more. I pray she has a good month leading up to the big day and doesn't get too nervous.

Pray for Dr. Peerless, the doctor who will be taking care of Mama, that he'll have wisdom, knowledge, skill, and whatever else it takes to have her dancing again soon.

Please go to Maxey Web and pray for Annette. Her family has taken her home, and hospice has been called. They are so much stronger than I could ever be in the same situation.

Brian's physical therapy seems to be working on his jacked-up rotator cuff. We pray the healing continues!

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Ah, Friday. Blissful, peaceful, relaxed Friday. Yeah, right. Around here it's still pedal to the metal on Fridays. So, wasting no more time in chit chat....

Thank God...It's Friday

Praises

I am immensely, amazingly thankful for my husband, who forgives me for being rash and mouthy, who takes care of so many crazy catastrophes in a day and still handle mine when he gets home. Thank God he gives me a "do over" daily!

Likewise, thank God that He does the same!!

Thank God for friends. For the ones you can call on a moment's notice and know they'll talk you off the ledge or commiserate with whatever's going on in your life, and tell you how right you are all the time. And come to your house to make pajama pants, giving you the best laugh you've had in a while.

Brian had an appointment with his neurologist this week, and he's perfect. Or at least that's what his tests say! The neurologist couldn't find anything physical to explain Brian's neurological anomalies, which is actually a relief. Things have gotten exponentially better since he's staying more hydrated and got glasses, so we pray that might be the answer!

Requests

Not a lot going on in this department...which is a praise! Some of you may know that Brian has boogered his shoulder somehow. Probably at work, lifting carpets. He's seen the doctor and has an appointment with a physical therapist next week. But it's starting to hurt daily, nightly, all the time. We really pray it's not a torn rotator cuff, but that's the most likely. This has been going on for months (and months and months) through all the other stuff he's been dealing with. So please pray for his shoulder and some fast healing.

I'm taking a set of baby pouch-style slings to On The Turtle's Back tonight. It'd be really nice if they all sold like hotcakes!

This weekend is nutty busy for us, so I'll try to see you Monday....maybe with pictures. No promises, though!

Gasp.....Yawn....

It has been a nutty, nutty few days. You may have heard that YaYa Princess and I were going to make pajama pants this weekend. You heard wrong. What we actually made was more akin to tents....our pattern was all jacked up and we finally had to just start cutting fabric and making it up as we went along. After four fabrics, tons of elastic, and a useless pattern, we ended up with one pair of pajama pants. And a ton of laughs, so that's something.

This week I have five kids in care officially. Granted, that's technically only four spots, but with picking up extra kids here and there for fill-in and back-up care that puts me back at full time work. Thank goodness!! What that does mean is that I'm run ragged and exhausted. Hence the gasp and yawn.....

Tonight is Brian's sleep study to find out if he has apena. Something is up, we just don't know what it is. Please keep him in your prayers - we need some wisdom.

Off to eat a little lunch. Ya'll have a great day!

Thank God....It's Friday!!

I know it's late. I've been chained to the sewing machine for the past two nights and am trying to get things done. So, with like 30 seconds left to Friday...

Thank God....It's Friday (or Saturday)!

Praises

I thank God immensely today that every day is new and fresh and that we can start over. And that I can do it again tomorrow since I'm gonna need it.

Thank God my husband is very similar in this respect....

We're thankful that business is picking up around here and by next week I'll be thatmuchcloser to making the amount of money I'm supposed to each week. Whew! What a long year it's been!

Thank the good Lord for naps. That's all I have to say about that.

Requests

Please keep Annette in your prayers.

Mama and her friend, Coe, are travelling this weekend. Please keep these crazy ladies in your prayers.

Ditto YaYa Princess, who is travelling to see lil' ol' me!!!

I think I'm forgetting something, but I'm not sure what it is.

Ya'll have a great weekend!

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Holy cats, it's been a crazy week! I should have known going into last weekend already tired wasn't a good thing. I officially need a lot less nuttiness in my life, and to make up for a huge sleep-debt. Remember when Brian was away for ten days and I nearly broke my ankle, and then my in-laws came, and then Brian was in the hospital, and then we had lots of fun plans, and then my uncle took a turn for the worse and passed away? And then I went to hang out with the biggest, most fun group of women I ever could ask for? That was a little something we'll call JuneJuly, during which I'm not sure I slept more than 5-6 hours nightly. I seriously cannot believe the turn this summer has taken, and cannot wait for it to slow down. Since all of August is now booked up tight, I'm quite literally praying for September. Not trying to wish my life away, but definitely looking forward to some peace and quiet. Speaking of praying.....

Thank God...It's Friday

Praises

Thank God that this week was fast, and that Brian is patient. Nothing is getting done around here while I am the full-time (but happy) slave to a four month old. I had forgotten just how hands-on they are at that age.

I'm glad that we get to spend a great weekend with each other, and with my family. We'll be concert-ing and there are rumors of a trip to Skyline Drive floating around.

Stellan is doing great! You may remember that I've been following Stellan's story for quite some time, and that I asked you to pray for him last Monday. The YaYa Princess has been watching Stellan's situation, too, and I hope you'll keep him in your prayers as well. But for now, the Lord was good yet again and Stellan is home and doing great. He'll get to grow a bit more before he heads to Boston for more surgery.

MamaSpohr, who is on my mind so very often, is pregnant. I am so glad that this sweet family is growing again. Understandably this brings a lot of mixed emotions after the passing of her first daughter this Spring, but I pray that this second baby (Binky for now, her blog says) is able to be a balm to her soul and that she'll feel Binky bringing her Maddie's love with every snuggle.

MadHat76's husband seems to be doing well. I've seen the pictures and it ain't pretty. But it seems like they're settling into a nice routine.

Requests

Please continue to pray for Annette over at Maxey Web. She simply isn't doing well, and I'm sure that the diagnosis of radiation necrosis in her brain is a bigger blow to her parents than we can even imagine. She was supposed to head into surgery today for a tracheotomy, but was rescheduled for Monday. Please keep her whole family in your prayers.

Have I mentioned Brian needs a new job? Cause he does. Pray on that, will you?

One of my friends from ages ago is going through a lot. A lot. I'm not going to air it on the Internet, as it's not in my place. But please keep him and his daughter in your prayers.

If you have any prayer requests or praises, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comments section. Though I don't always reply, the comments dump right into my blog reader which dumps straight into my phone. So I seem them and pray for each one of you. It's my hope that you'll do the same for the people you see commenting. Hey, lurkers....leave a comment and we'll pray for you, too!! Or just lurk -- that's what I tend to do, for the record!

Happy Friday, ya'll.

Urgent Monday Prayers

Please pray RIGHT NOW for Stellan.

Please stop whatever you are doing right now and pray for Stellan. Please pray for wisdom for his doctors and nurses, strength for his parents, and health for his little body. Stellan has been fighting for so long, and is having a really hard time right now. God has worked in this little guy's life many times before, and he needs Him again now.

If you would lke to receive updates on Stellan's situation,

please follow MckMama on Twitter as she updates from his bedside.

Saturday Update

Mama called me this morning to let me know that Uncle Carroll was doing very badly and the doctor had suggested calling the family, saying that he only had a few hours left. He had started receiving morphine periodically and was bleeding internally.

Mama, Daddy, and I were at AMC by 11:00, and we stayed all day. I got home around 11:30 PM, and plan on returning in the morning. Uncle Carroll was extubated yesterday and so was able to talk with folks today, say goodbye, and give everyone lots of instructions (something he loves to do, which made us all laugh). By early this evening, he had been increased to a morphine drip and is mostly asleep. He is currently sleeping, but struggling to breathe. We will return to AMC tomorrow to keep watch and be with my aunt and cousin.

Please continue to pray for our family. We have so appreciated everything so far, the calls and emails, comments, Tweets, and prayers. While this is horribly hard for Mama and our family, it is exponentially harder for Aunt Ellen and Sara. I can't imagine what they are going through, and only pray for peace for them.

Thank you again, and I'll try to post tomorrow evening. If I have a chance, I'll Tweet tomorrow to let folks know what's going on. If you don't Twitter, well, you should! Follow me, and I'll follow you. Maybe I'll get all crazy and put up a "follow me on Twitter" link at some point. Love to you all.

UPDATE: Hey, look, it's My Twitter Feed! Right over there ------------------>