Our Myrtle Beach Vacation

Below we have posted some pictures of our vacation this year. We had a good time with our extended family and enjoyed seeing everyone. It was a sun filled 2 weeks and we came home a little redder (we don't tan in our family...hahaha!) and closer as a family. We spent our last week there just being together as a family and enjoyed spending our time with each other. The kids had a great time and had all kinds of fun around the campground. We took advantage this year of all the activities that the campground had to offer so the kids had a great time being there. We didn't do a whole lot of outside activities but we had a great time just hanging around the campground. We have now had to come back to reality and get on with our life. Jeff and I have complete faith that the Lord will lead us where He wants us to go from here. We are grateful for the many people who have loved and cared about our family and who are praying for us. We are thankful for the men that Jeff worked with at Constrata who were good to our family over the years and we wish them the best. We are looking ahead to the future with great faith and know that the Lord's promises are sure. We hope everyone has a great summer!

Emily with "The Terminator"

Michael with "The Terminator"

Michael playing "Dance Dance Revolution"

Jeff and Michael driving a simulated race car

Emily and Lauren on the go carts

Lauren and Uncle Floyd in his convertible

Getting a smile from Jeff in the trailer

Daddy Tom at the trailer

Kim and our family out to dinner

Jeff and Jean at Planet Hollywood

Libbi and Pete with kids at the pool

Libbi and Momma at the pool

Two of my beautiful nieces suntanning!

Gramps in the shade at the pool

Katie and Lauren at Aunt Kim's house

There are no words...

There really are no words to describe our experience with Elder Bednar on Sunday. We were grateful for the opportunity we had to meet with him and for Lauren to have the chance to talk with him. He has the spirit with him so strong and it was wonderful the way he allowed Lauren to speak what was on her heart. It was a special experience and one that I am sure our family will remember for a long time. We are grateful for the Lord's blessings in our lives and grateful for such a direct answer to prayers. We are most grateful for President Wilford who was led to set up the meeting with Elder Bednar and we are grateful for his wonderful and dedicated service to our stake. We love you, President Wilford and you have been the perfect example of not shrinking in the face of overwhelming challenges. Thank you. We had a perfect Sunday and left to come on vacation feeling overwhelmed with gratitude and humility. We have learned a lot about living a higher law this week-end and we are trying to be a little better each day.

MY ONE OF A KIND BEACH BAG!!!

How do I begin to describe this wonderful one of a kind beach bag that Beth made for me to go the beach with??? I have looked and looked for the perfect bag that fits all of my needs and I have never been able to find one so I was talking to Beth about it one day and she told me that she thought she could make me one. I told her all that I wanted and below you have a picture of my perfect bag! It has a zipper at the top to zip up the whole bag. A zipper pocket inside to hold small things, zipper pockets on either side and a zipper pocket in the front. It also has pockets on each side for water bottles. I have the perfect bag and I know it will be the envy of other people who need to carry as much as I do! Beth...thank you, thank you, thank you...how you did it with your brood, I'll never know but I am glad you did! Okay...everyone, below is my perfect one of kind original beach bag! I LOVE IT!!!! Isn't it great????

WE ARE ON THE WAY HOME!!!

To everyone who has prayed, fasted, called and been a complete strength to us...we say a great big THANK YOU!!! We have felt the Lord's hand blessing us as we are now coming to what we hope will be the end of hospital stays for a while! We are going home today and then leaving in less than 2 weeks for a wonderful beach trip for 2 weeks. We are all getting excited about it and I can tell you that we need the rest and relaxation or more esp...I NEED THE REST AND RELAXATION!!!!! I am looking forward to being back home with my family and Lauren is as well. She has had an extremely tough hospital stay this time but in the end I think we will all be better for it. She is a tough young lady who understands the power of prayer and faith and we are grateful for the knowledge we have that helps us get thru tough times. Myrtle Beach here we come!!!!

Where to go from here....

Well I have good, actually great news....the colonoscopy showed that the colon was perfectly normal and showed no signs of disease or inflammation or anything. Dr. Freeman said that she is going to go back and look at the lower bowel study with the radiologist since it showed that she had narrowing in her ilieum. Anyway, it is great that it is normal but at the same time we are now back to square one with trying to figure out what this pain is from. At this point I feel like we should just put her on some medication to calm down her muscles or stomach or whatever and send us home. I suppose we will be talking with the doctors and get some kind of plan from them but I can't imagine that they will keep us here much longer or at least I hope they don't. We all need a vacation right now as much as we need answers...the vacation I believe we will get...the answers I am not sure about anymore. Maybe we should call the show "Mystery Diagnosis" since we seem to be in the middle of one.

FINALLY....AN ANSWER!!!!!!!

Well...we finally think we have found the reason for all of Lauren's stomach pain. Not to go into a great lot of detail but they believe that from the test they ran this morning (see below entry for what that was all about) that it looks like Lauren has inflammation and narrowing in her colon area which is the cause of all this pain. They will be doing a colonoscopy on Tuesday to look and get some biopsies so they will know how to treat it. I spoke at length with both Dr. Muenzer and Dr. Freeman (the GI doctor) this afternoon. We are so grateful that Heavenly Father has answered our prayers in a most direct way. We are hoping that when they look at her colon that what they suspect is what they will find. Lauren is feeling really bad this afternoon so Dr. Muenzer said that if he has to increase her pain medication thru the week-end to get her out of pain while they are preparing for these tests then he will. I'll update once we have more information but for now at least we are going in the right direction. They also said that this could explain why she had pancretitis as well! As always we love Dr. Muenzer because this has been his suspicion from the beginning....we so trust him!

Long Morning...

This morning they took Lauren down for an upper GI study with small bowel follow thru. Let me tell you...it was awful! Lauren had to drink 3 cups of this barium stuff that they flavored chocolate and then they took all these pictures as it went thru her system. She had to lay on her side then we got her to walk up and down the hall while she was in pain, then we came back in and they laid her down and pressed on her stomach until she was crying so bad and begging me to make them stop that I could hardly keep my composure. I silently prayed that the Lord would ease her pain and help her have the courage to get thru the study. She did make it thru it and we both heaved a great sigh of relief when they said it was over. We came back, she took a shower and she is now sleeping comfortably after some pain meds. They are going to be doing another Ph Probe on Tuesday to check her reflux again... Dr. Phillips wants a current one done before he does surgery. There are still some other tests that they can do but we are just hoping that we are all done with testing for today. Lauren will more than likely sleep the rest of the afternoon as she didn't have a great night last night and she is very tired. Keep praying for us...we surely can use all the prayers and good vibes being sent our way that we can get!

Tagged.....by Libbi!

1. Pick up the nearest book
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 3 people and acknowledge who tagged you

Okay, Libbi tagged me...This book is on the shelf next to me in the hospital...It is the scriptures...So here goes..."And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold."

I tag Kim, Jewel, and Shalene.

No, UNC is not our home.....

But it sure feels like that these days. We had to bring Lauren back in yesterday. We were supposed to come over here today for an appointment with Dr. Muenzer but since Sunday, Lauren's stomach pain has gotten worse and the medicine didn't seem to be helping so after talking at length with Dr. Muenzer and then Jeff and I going over everything we came to a decision to bring her in. She was in terrible pain yesterday and Dr. Muenzer was adamant that we bring her in. They still don't know what is causing the pain but they are more determined than ever to figure it out. I have no idea how long we will be here but I told them yesterday that they have 2 1/2 weeks to figure it out because we are going on vacation on June 14th. Please pray that we will get to the bottom of this and we will be able to go on our vacation. They have consulted the surgeons at this point and more than likely they will be doing surgery here soon. I don't have any details right now...just pray for my little Lauren and ask the Lord to direct the doctors so they will know what to do. We would really appreciate it. Thanks! For those of you that want this information....Lauren's telephone number is (919) 966-2493 and her room number is 6C03.

The Art Auction

Well, before anyone asks..no, I wasn't able to get any pictures. They took one of Lauren there with their camera and if I get a copy of it then I will post it. The place was very crowded and it wasn't that big so I wasn't able to get any good pictures with my camera. They had Lauren's picture on the wall along with a short biography about her as one of their featured artists. She had three pictures there being auctioned off. We only stayed about 30 minutes so we left pretty early into it and I looked at the papers under her art to see what the bids were so far. She had one picture that they had bid $30.00 on, another one had a $20.00 bid on it and the last one had a $25.00 bid on it. We don't know how much they actually ended up selling them for. I hope they will let us know. All of the money went to help the NC Children's Hospital which we are pleased to help. Lauren was very excited about her art and we hope that she will continue to learn and pursue this avenue because we do believe she has real talent. We were pleased that she had a good time and we celebrated with a trip to an ice cream parlor across the street from the art gallery (they were serving wine and cheese there so we passed that up for the good stuff...ice cream!!!) They were very happy that Lauren came to the auction and came out to the truck when we left to thank us for coming and bringing Lauren. It was a pretty snazzy affair with all those artsy people and I am quite sure we stuck out like sore thumbs...oh well! It was a cool experience. Well, Michael said he wasn't all that impressed and he was glad when we went to the ice cream parlor...hahaha! We all enjoyed that part probably the most!!!

EMILY GOT HER PERMIT...SHOUT HOORAY!!!!

Everyone stay off the roads!!!! hahaha! Emily got her learners permit today! What a great day for her. She was so excited when they told her she passed and she got the permit in her hands. I even let her drive me home from the DMV...a nervous experience for me but she did great! I can still remember when she learned how to walk and now she is driving...where does the time go???? Now our days will be filled with driving...maybe I should take up drinking...hahaha..! I am not old enough to have a child that can drive or at least I don't think I should be! We are very proud of Emily...she is way excited and we share her excitement! Another driver in the family...more errands for her to run....higher insurance to pay....oh my! Jeff will look forward to the day when she can drive her own self to seminary in the mornings....there is a bright spot to this driving thing! Good job Emily !!!!! (And no, there is no new car around the corner...sorry!!!)

Mothers Day...a mixed day!

This year was another one of firsts for me...it seems like every day is another first I have to live thru. This day proved to be a lot harder than I had imagined it to be. I guess unless you have lived thru what Jeff and I are living thru then it is hard to imagine being in my place. I have four wonderful children (three on this earth who I love more than life itself and love spending every moment with and a fourth that I long for every single day!) I guess you miss the one you don't see the most. Kim told me that she cried after she talked to Will...it is hard to be away from your kids on a day like Mothers Day. I cried because although I have my other wonderful children and they are wonderful, I didn't have my baby. All I have are pictures and a card that Noah made for me last year on Mothers Day. I looked at it and the tears fell over and over again. I barely made it thru church...everyone seemed to sense that it was a hard day for me and were extremely sensitive to my feelings...I appreciated that. Jeff gave me a yellow rose at church...Noah's favorite color...even he teared up as he watched me at church...he felt my pain and could not make it easier and he knew that. I didn't think it was going to hit me this hard but it did and the pain is overwhelming. I took down his hand and foot molds they gave me at the hospital and ran my hand over them. They are so small and every little line is visible. I felt physically sick at not having him here. Life is hard sometimes. Thank you everyone who called me and e-mailed me...you understood my pain and I felt your love....it helped me get thru it. I love you all so much and I appreciate your love and concern...it made a not so good day a little more bearable. I will one day have a joyous and happy reunion with my sweet little boy and my tears will be turned from sorrow to joy....I look forward to that day.

Poor Pugslie!!!

Well, we got Lauren home and then we had to take Pugslie yesterday in to the vet to have her spayed. She did really good but we all feel sorry for her since she came home. She has to wear this cone over her head for 7 days to keep her from biting or licking her incision site and she is in some pain...we are giving her pain medication and that is just making her woozy and tired. When I took her outside to the bathroom yesterday after she got back from the vet she took a few steps, wobbled and then fell over in the grass. It was funny to watch but I felt sorry for her. I picked her up, carried her inside and layed her on a blanket where she stayed most of the afternoon and then Jeff took her out last night and then laid her in her crate before we went to bed. She is still laying around this morning and likes one particular place on the couch the best so we let her lay there. We feel sorry for her with this cone around her head but the vet told us that she had to keep it on. Lauren decorated it with stickers...I don't think Pugslie cares...hahaha! We will be glad when she doesn't have to look like an alien dog anymore...poor Pugslie! (Jeff says poor him for having to pay for all this stuff...hahaha!)

HOME SWEET HOME!!!!

A very short post to say that we are finally HOME!!!!!! Yeah!!! We were thrilled when the doctors let us go today and we have been smiling ever since. I am so happy to be home and Lauren is as well. It was so good to walk into our house and be with my whole family and in time for family home evening night as well. This will be a great family home evening! Lauren is still recovering some from the pancreatitis but she is doing so much better than she was! Anyway...thanks everyone for everything you did for us....the visits, the phone calls, the cards, the e-mails, sending food to our house and esp. for all the prayers that were sent up! Thank you does not seem like near enough! We are so glad to be home!!!!!!

A Funny Story

I have been thinking about this story with all of the interest lately in Lauren's art talent and I couldn't help but laugh...about 4 years ago (when we still lived on Church Street) Emily had learned how to massage our feet, shoulders, and hands and everyone was always asking her to give them a short massage. We suggested that Emily could earn some extra money if she would charge people to do that so she made this chart that said "Foot Massage - 10 minutes - .25 cents, Hand Massage - 10 minutes - .15 cents, Shoulder Massage - 10 minutes - .30 cents." We thought that was cute and everyone said that was very reasonable so then Lauren wanted to get in on the act and she also made a chart that said, "Normal Drawing - $1.00, Black & White Drawing - $1.50, Western Drawing - $2.00, and Family Picture - $5.00" We just looked at her chart and said, "Well, you aren't giving a service, do you really think people are going to pay that much for your drawings...give us a break!!!" We took her sign down because we told her that she couldn't charge that much for pictures and she should just do them for free or charge a dime or something. I guess she knew even way back then that art is EXPENSIVE and that is probably why we don't own any paintings...hahahaha! Oh well, that was so typical of Lauren and we have laughed about that a lot of times. If she ever becomes famous one day none of us will be able to afford her high priced art...hahaha! Something to think about.....!

My little artist...

Just a short blog to let everyone know that Lauren is becoming quite the little artist up here. They got her to paint a picture to auction off at an art exhibit on May 17th at an art gallery here in Chapel Hill (which we will be going to!) She was very excited about that and they also wanted a picture of her and a little background so she can be one of the featured artists (this art show is to raise money for UNC Children's Hospital.) So we were happy about that...but this is the part that I think is so cool..when we first got up here a few weeks ago and you look out the window from Lauren's bed you can see the clock tower on the UNC campus. Lauren thought it would be a good idea to draw a picture from her viewpoint of the clock tower so she did. We taped the picture to her front door. (If you go back and look at a previous post with a picture of her door and click on it to make it bigger you can see the picture of the clock tower.) EVERYONE that passes by her door makes a comment on the clock tower picture and how good it is; esp. when they come into the room and look at it from out the window. I am not very artistic so I thought it was cute but you know, not a big deal. Well they came down today and asked me if they could have that picture off of her door to auction off as well. They were so impressed with it that they felt like it would be a big hit at the art show. I let them have it but told them that they had to scan a copy for me and send it to me. I usually am not one to brag too much about my kids (they are all wonderful, but you know, every mother feels that way about her kids) but I just had to share this with everyone. I am really proud of her and how she pours her feelings into all her artwork which shows in the details and the colors that she uses. I don't know a thing about art but I must say that one day I am going to be very proud when she becomes a celebrated artist....! Jeff and I both think she has real talent. I'll post or get her to post some scans of her art when we finally get home...which I am hoping will be tomorrow or Sunday...we will let you know!

There is an end in sight...finally!!!!

Lauren is doing a lot better. Her pancreatic enzymes are continuing to come down and she is feeling a lot better. The doctors will want her enzymes to be normal before they feel really good about letting her go. She still has pain when she eats solid food but we are slowly coming back to that. They have switched her from iv pain medication to oral as she can now tolerate them without throwing up. She can come home on those if need be. She is drinking pediasure or carnation instant breakfast to help give her nutrients while she is easing back into eating. She is out of the room a lot during the day now at the doctors request so that she can build her strength back up. She walks up and down the halls, goes to the "teen room" and we walk around the hospital downstairs. She is glad to be feeling better and we are glad to see an end in sight. It is looking more and more if she continues to do this good that we will be able to come home at some point this week-end. We may even give her some cornstarch tonight...we are making slow but steady progress. We will be glad to get home and back into a somewhat normal routine. Michael had his appt. with Dr. Muenzer over here yesterday and he got a good report...other than he now has to lay off of the fried foods. He wasn't too happy about that but Dr. Muenzer was strict on that point so we are all going to have to improve our diet...it will be good for us all! Life is beginning to look up and we are now looking forward to our vacation next month...we will all need it.

Life is hard sometimes.....

Today has been an okay day. Lauren ate some cheerios this morning and had a popsicle but her stomach pain has continued to persist. They took her off the tpn this evening with the understanding that she needs to eat more in order to stay off of it. She has only her d10 running which keeps her blood sugar up. She is getting frustrated and tired of being in the hospital. She and I talked tonight and she told me some of how she is feeling inside. It is hard to keep being upbeat when you aren't feeling good. She wants some answers and I told her that she needs to have a good long talk with Dr. Muenzer tomorrow. I know that will help her to feel better. As far as my prediction that we could go home Wednesday....86 that! Her doctor said that it won't be this Wednesday...oh well! We are looking at things like, okay, we are gonna be here until your stomach pain isn't so bad or either gone. We just keep trying to find our silver linings when days like this are here. Lauren got a beautiful stuffed animal cat and a puzzle from Bishop Tiek and Robin today. That made her smile and she has the cat on the bed with her. Thank you so much. She loves it and it brightened her up. Sister Judd also came to visit us today and we had such a nice visit. I really appreciate her taking the time to come and visit with us. It meant a lot! We have great nurses up here and we are always thankful for that. Stephanie (a new friend we made up here..her daughter went home on Friday) called up here today to check on Lauren. I thought that was so kind. I am grateful for good people. Lauren and I both are grateful for prayers and love being sent our way. Thank you all. We will get thru this...one day at a time.

I want to go Home.....!!!!!!

We are so ready to go home! All of the little girls that Lauren made friends with up here are home. The last two left today....and here we still are! She is making progress even if it is slower than I would like for it to be. Today she ate 3 graham crackers, drank some skim milk and is going to have her jello for dinner along with a popsicle later tonight. She is still having some stomach pain but Dr. Muge told me this morning that they can send her home on some pain meds and nausea medicine so I am glad about that. I am going to ask them in the morning to stop her tpn and just let her regular iv fluids run so it will be easier to transition her back to eating. I am also going to make them order her a regular tray for eating so we can choose foods that she likes. Dr. Muge told her she would go to the store and get whatever she wants...we are all anxious to get her back to a regular diet. The surgeon will probably come by tomorrow and talk with me about the nissen wrap they want to do on Lauren but I do not want to have that done for a few months. We need a break from the hospital. I just hope this doesn't come back. I will be glad to be back home with all my family, sit in my own living room, and sleep in my own bed. Lauren and I have been sorting thru her stuff this afternoon to decide what to leave here when we go and what to take with us. We always seem to leave with more stuff than we came in with. We are shooting for Wednesday to get out of here. Michael has an appt. with Dr. Muenzer on Wednesday so we want to be able to go home when that is done. Lauren had one scheduled also but since they have seen her everyday since she has been here I think that will count...hahaha! Anyway....Lauren's pancreatic enzymes are still elevated but I am hoping they will return to normal in the next few days. That's about it for today.

Diagnosis, Anyone????????

Well, today is defintely better than yesterday was. Jeff and I met with Lauren's doctors yesterday afternoon and we went over all the test results they had thus far. Everything is coming back negative or a little off center but not enough to raise a red flag. Lauren's "sed rate" is still elevated which indicates that there is inflammation somewhere but they just don't know where. Not to go into a lot of detail and to cut to the point...they know the pain she is feeling is coming from something but it isn't clear what. They told us that she did have pancreatitis but that seemed to be resolving and Lauren is still having pain when she eats and drinks. I was extremely out of sorts last night, partly because I am way tired and partly because I hate not having a definitive answer. It drives me crazy and I HATE, HATE, HATE GSD!!!!!! This is always the case...we never can really pinpoint what causes things to happen and it always comes back to, "Well, it's just the way GSD goes sometimes"....not an answer!!!!!! Anyway, on the better side, Lauren is doing better today. She ate a spoonful of jello and a popsicle. Dr. Muenzer and Dr. Muge told her to take small steps and ease back into eating. We were so happy that she didn't throw up what she took in today....this is the first time that has happened...yeah! She is still having stomach pain when she eats (which this afternoon her doctors said was probably due to the pancreatitis) and they are giving her pain medication for that. She will have to be eating normally and able to take cornstarch and maintain her blood sugars before she can come home but we are thrilled that she is beginning to make progress. It will be a slow uphill road but we can finally see the light at the end of the road and that brings Jeff and I and Lauren good news. I had lunch with Dr. Muge today and we went over everything again. I was struggling last night to find my balance but I do have it back today. I know that Lauren's doctors love our family and put Lauren's wellbeing at the top of their list. Dr. Muenzer came by this morning on his way out of town to make sure that we were okay and to let me know again that even though we are all frustrated and still searching...we will figure this out eventually. Dr. Muge spent her lunchtime with me to help us think thru more things. I cannot ask for more than that. I think we are all happy that Lauren is showing improvement today and I have been able to breathe a sigh of relief. As Jeff so eloquently says all the time..."It is what it is and we deal the hand that has been given us." That's the best we can do! Thanks for all the prayers...Lauren knows the Lord is watching over her and that gives her great comfort. With that in mind, we can overcome every challenge.