Announcing.....

Ethan Michael! Weighing in at a nice 7lbs 15 ounces and 20" long. He has lots of dark brown hair under that cap. Jess did an amazing job bringing this little gift into the world at 5:48 am today! We kind of thought he wanted to be here for Thanksgiving and thankfully he is! Almost all day Monday Jess was having pretty regular cramping or mild contractions, but after hours of this they stopped and she went to work that night. Then Jess and Mike were at my house last night helping me cook for Thanksgiving, when about 8:15 Jess started what she thought was more cramping. By about 8:30 we knew this was the real deal. When she went to the hospital she was already 4cm dilated. She was already having contractions 1-2 minutes apart. I am so proud of how Jess and Mike handled themselves during the birth process. My heart is just bursting with love and admiration for Jess! I am so proud of you hon! You really worked hard bringing this beautiful baby boy into the world and adding yet another gift to be thankful for today and everyday.

UGGHHH......

I am so disappointed and frustrated. As some of you know, I have had several surgeries on my neck and back due to a work related injury (neck) and degenerative disc disease in my back. I thought my troubles were over with my neck until late summer this year. I started to have some troubling all too familiar symptoms such as tingling sensations into my fingers, electric pains in my right arm into my fingers etc. I had an MRI a week ago last Friday and finally got the results last Thursday. Not good, seems I have another full herniation of a disc at the C4-C5 level in my neck. So, now what do I do? Well for starters I have an appointment for steroid injections in my neck on December 9th. I will need a series of 3 each 2 weeks apart. If they don't work to calm the injured nerves down, I will need to see my neurosurgeon to find out what options I have. I know what that will mean, more surgery, but I am going to avoid that as long as I can safely. Yikes! I cannot even begin to tell you how devastated I am by this news. I am now wondering if I will be able to participate in the 2010 BJP. I am taking it one day at a time hoping the injections will give me some relief and that I can avoid yet another surgery. I feel I have missed out on so much of my life recovering from these surgeries. The thought of another 6 months in a neck brace is so depressing. I want to be able to be there for little bun and the rest of my family too. Speaking of Bun, hes still with his mommy. His actual due date is tomorrow the 24th. I think he wants to skip Thanksgiving and make his debut after that. Wish Jess luck for a safe and quick delivery. Wish me luck on these injections too! Hugs!

Many Updates!

Hi! Thanks for checking in with me. Once again on the prompting from my daughter Jess, I am updating my blog. Still no progress with my Bead Journals, seems bead work is just too frustrating to try to do with a little one around. Shes just too into whatever grandma is doing to resist "helping" me with everything I do! Don't get me wrong, I love all the attention, but it does get in the way of creativity!

I am so happy and surprised to tell you that Baby Bun has yet to make his appearance into the world. Jessica's Dr said hes just plain too cozy in there to come out, looks like hes gonna stay put for awhile yet. That's such great news since things were so scary in the beginning. Lets hope hes here by Thanksgiving. I think Jess is hoping so!

Here is a picture of Kileigh along with her beautiful mommy Courtney on Halloween this year. She was such a cute little ladybug. She had a blast trick-or-treating. She said her own version of trick-or-treat, said thank you and even blew kisses to some of the people handing out candy! I think she melted a few hearts because she got as many as 4 treats at many of the houses she went too! Such a little sweetheart!

Maddux is continuing to do remarkably well. he is now 10 months fever free! Yippee!

I am still wondering what shape and size piece I want to do for next years BJP. I just cant seem to come up with just the right idea yet. Stay tuned.....