Our Party of Five: Utter craziness!

That about sums up the last uhhmmm month?!?!

But we have come out of it unscathed for the most part, so for that I am UTTERLY GRATEFUL :) So much to update on and so little time...

We spent the first half of April enjoying our weekends and making it through the work weeks as usual. It seems like that it was we do these days, live for the weekends and the few hours that we share in the evenings. I try to remind myself to be thankful that we do have jobs to go to since there are so many who are experiencing the awful rocky road of the poor economy and job loss. So we will continue on our journey and LIVE for the weekends AND BE THANKFUL FOR OUR BLESSINGS... There are lots of fun pictures to share from the Spring Fling at Lucas' daycare in which he thoroughly enjoyed himself playing games, trying out the big kids playground, and playing with his friends :) We also had a great Easter weekend in Fredericksburg spending time with family and friends. Lucas was spoiled by several Easter bunnies apparently ;) but did not object to say the least! We also got to catch up with some other great friends for Tracy's surprise 30th birthday party. They too lead a crazy hectic life and we really enjoy the times that we do get to spend together! Plus Todd rounded out the month with a run to support kids with cancer- what a fantastic cause! :)

So that is the highlights in a very brief summary....well, with one major part left out...

Most of you know and have been following the last few weeks with us via email, phone, Facebook. My dear sweet dad had a VERY scary spell back on April 26. He was having a really hard time breathing(I guess that is an understatement, he told us that he rather would have died then to feel like that-of course we are glad that that was not the case!) and he and John ended up calling 911 at 2am. They got him there and after evaluating him- discovered he had congestive heart failure (CHF). He was sedated,put on a ventilator, and given Lasix to get rid of all of the fluid that had built up around his heart and in his lungs. His heart was enlarged and the ventricles were only functioning at about 15% when they should be about 50-55%. The doc met with us and explained that he needed a defibrillator implanted to help his heart beat the way it is supposed to in a normal sinus rhythm vs. scary fast or slow arrithmyias. But he needed to recover some under observation and get rid of the blood thinners that were still in his system before they could operate. So he spent that Sunday in the CICU and a few days on the regular cardiac floor. They performed a cardiac catherization to assure that there were not any blockages. (He has had 3 heart attacks in the past and a quadruple bypass back in 1998, plus a pulmonary embolism only two weeks later). Not to mention the poor guy has a blood clotting disorder which is why he is on blood thinners. That weaves a very sticky web with him for these procedures. Although either one is not major surgery, they still need to get into his vessels which means working in the bloodstream. Well, if his blood is too thin, he could hemorrhage. If it gets too thick he could end up with another clot- a heart attack, embolism, or stroke = all are BAD! So they had to get him at a good point (his INR-blood thickness measurement) in order to move forward with the two procedures. The did both successfully and he went home last Thursday. I spent Sunday through Wednesday up there and John was also around alot. He really scared us all but seems to be recovering great thus far. All of his doctors and nurses were fantastic and I must admit modern medicine amazes me... This nifty little device is a miracle and will help keep his bum ticker in check! God has given him so many extra lives already, guess that means he still has lots to do here, I know we think so!!!