Sweet baby Brian!

So Brian had his surgery yesterday - the day before he turned 8 months old, he had open heart surgery to repair a VSD, or hole in his heart. It's been a stressful week, with another stressful week of him in the hospital ahead of us, but God has been soooo good and he is doing really really well! For pictures and updates, you can check my sister's blog.

I'm headed down to Charleston tomorrow to spend next week there - being with Brian and staying with Abby. Although I'm not looking forward to seeing that precious child in the hospital, I am looking forward to the time with my family. And I'll be glad to be there - it made more sense for my mom to take this week and me to take next week to be down there, but it was very hard for me to not be there the day of the actual surgery. We expect him to come home mid-week next week and be back to normal as soon as he is released!

My sweet babies!

I spent my Spring Break ....guess. I bet you can't. In Charleston! My babies are beyond cute, just so you know. Here are some pics from my trip:













I had a great time. Abby is just talking all the time. You never know what's going to come out of that child's mouth. My sister said the other day, while she thought Abby had been playing quietly, Abby walked over and informed her that she was a "beautiful angel" and that she "drank Mommy's Diet Coke very carefully". She had Diet Coke all down her front at this point :) While I was down there, I was on the computer (frequently - I'm a facebook addict) and she climbed up in my lap and said "I want to look at Facebook" Um, I may spend too much time there. Another time I was on the computer and she said "I'm a big girl" I didn't respond, so she said "I said, I'm a big girl, Sarah!" Oops. Sorry, Abs. Yes, you are, in fact, a big girl. :) My mom was playing trains with her in Lynchburg and she got up to get something so Abby said "Bebe, please sit down". That girl knows what she wants!

Brian got his third haircut this week. That child has UNBELIEVABLE hair. He is scheduled to have surgery to repair the hole in his sweet little heart next Thursday, May 7, so that's something I've been praying about frequently. The week after that, while he's still in the hospital, I took the whole week off to go down there to be with him and help with Abby. My mom is going down the week of surgery. He and Abby are so cute together - they love each other so much!

Yes, I realize that these are not my children. Still. I love them so much!

A Beautiful Day!

So today we finally had some nice warm, sunny weather - the first time in a long, long time! It was so exciting! So I went to church, then went out to lunch with some friends from church. They were playing ultimate frisbee this afternoon so I went home, threw on an old t-shirt from the play I did in high school (Go Go Go Joseph!), and headed out to join them. I didn't actually play frisbee - I am no good at that and people who take these things seriously would get irritated if I tried to play - but I did play a little bit of basketball, which is awesome. I need to do that more. Then I headed over to the Masinick's to catch the end of their barbeque and play some ladderball. (Awesome game)

While this may sound like an awesome, fun day to anyone, to me it was nothing short of a miracle. Let me tell you all of the things from this day that would have never happened last year - note the phrase "some friends from church". I made friends, which is not something I did well when I was super fat. Note that I went to be involved in some outdoor physical activitiy - not something I could have done fat. Note that I threw on an old t-shirt from high school. It's actually looser now than it was then. Why I kept it all these years, I don't know. My life now is made up of miracles everyday and I'm so, so grateful.

I'm rarely sappy, but today I was just feeling this so much. I even called my mom and told her thank you. Not only did she pay for my surgery, but she encouraged me every step of the way. I have a long, uphill battle still to go but I'm celebrating how far I've come for now.

Abby's Birthday and Brian's baptism

I had a great long weekend in Charleston! Tons of family came in to celebrate Abby turning 2 and Brian getting baptized. They both just get so much bigger and sweeter every time I see them :)

Although Abby almost slept through it :), her party was a big success! There were balloons,

cake,

tattoos,

and lots of Thomas supplies!

Even Brian got in on the theme :)

The next day Brian was baptized at church.
He wore his dad's christening gown, which was really sweet.
During the sermon, Kay and Bruce got a "shout out". They were held up as an example to the whole congregation! After the service, the family posed for endless photos...

I love these kids!!!!!

No gallstones for me!

MY BFF JULIE HAD HER BABY ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

Lila was born at 7:23 am and weighed in.....um, I forgot. But she weighed in as something. 7 lb, ? oz maybe? Anyway, she's really, really cute. Julie was in the hospital 3 days and I went to see her 4 times :) They came home Monday so tomorrow night I'm taking them dinner and I can't wait to see that sweet baby at home away from all that hospital stuff! She's absolutely perfect and I LOVE that I live so close to her. Poor Julie is going to want to kick me out soon! I'm not going to post any pictures b/c I haven't asked Julie if it's ok. But I will if she says ok.

So, after a few days of phone tag with the surgeon's office, I found out today that my ultrasound was clear and I don't have gallstones. I didn't really think I did, but I feel better having ruled it out. There are, however, two downsides to this situation - 1. This pain isn't terribly frequent but I don't handle pain well and it HURTS. Now I don't know how to fix it. and 2. I had to get the ultrasound done at the hospital where I was considered an outpatient and my co-pay was $100!!! But, all in all, good news.

I know I haven't updated lately - smack my hand here - so here's what's going on with me:

- I have been a GRUMP RUMP this week. I felt icky on Monday, but I don't really know what's going on here. I have not been really pleasant to be around, so be glad you're not around me. I apologize if you are.

- I don't know if I've talked about this much, but I've had to seriously scale back my running because my knee has really been hurting (see previous point about me not handling pain well). I was up to running 3-4 miles at a time, but for the last month or two I've only been about to make it about 2 before it hurts so badly I can't run anymore. So mostly I've been doing other things - swimming, classes at the gym, the elliptical, etc. Several people have told me to go get good running shoes, so yesterday I took some of my Christmas money to Roadrunner and had them watch me run and evaluate me and help me pick out good shoes. The girl was really nice and I picked out some Nikes. So last night I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. My knee didn't hurt nearly as bad when I ran, and I made it just over 3.5 miles :) (It took me about 45 minutes) Although, my knee did hurt quite a bit after I got home. I'll deal with that another time. But by the time I got off I had blisters on the inside arch of my foot and my toes were hurting and feeling cramped. At which point I realized I forgot to mention to the girl how enormously wide my feet are. So I took them back today and she watched me run some more and exchanged them for new ones. (She also suggested running socks which I, naturally, bought) My new ones are made by Saucony and they look like this:

They're a Progrid Omni 7 Moderate if any of you know what that means. I don't. I'll let you know how they do.

- This one is also about running. So it really could be a sub-bullet point of the last one. But I'm letting it stand on my own. Just a personal decision. I think I'm going to sign up to do the Monument Ave 10K here in Richmond at the end of March. This race is a huge deal around here, and I know lots of people who are doing it. They limit registration to 35,000 so I need to hurry ;) They have a training program through the local Y that I think I'll sign up for. How scary is that? Last year at this time I couldn't even run 6.2 yards, much less 6.2 miles! But I really want to do it. I'll be sure and keep you updated on my training. Quit holding your breath. It's like 2.5 months away and I don't think you can go that long without breathing.

- After I went shoe shopping yesterday, I went costume shopping. Some friends are having a come-dressed-as-a-movie-character birthday party in a few weeks, and I've been thinking about what to wear. So I went into a costume rental store just to try on a few things. It was SO MUCH FUN! It was like grown-up dress up. And, honestly, it was mostly fun because I could fit into the costumes ;) I would NEVER have even dreamed of trying that when I was heavier.

- Despite the fact that I bought some size 14 jeans tonight (a size I haven't seen since like middle school), I am feeling FAT FAT FAT FAT. Part of it is the fact that my stomach is shaped like a muffin top even when I'm not wearing pants, so I always have this nasty stomach roll to contend with. Part of it is some recent pictures. And part of it is just seeing the fat. It used to be that just be "normal sized" would make me happy. Now I think I'm going to need to be actually thin. Maybe this is part of my grumpy mood this week. Maybe I'm PMSing and have hormones flying all around. Maybe this is part of my "good enough is never good enough" mentality/issues. Maybe it's just part of the normal cycle following WLS. Maybe I need to seek therapy. Maybe this whole bullet was TMI for some of you. Sorry!

- On Friday, Abby turns 2!!!! And Brian is being baptized on Sunday. So everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is going down for the weekend. I'm really excited - it will be fun. I'm also really excited that I'm staying a day longer than everyone else so I'll have some time with my sister. She reminded me that last year on this weekend the two of us went to Patriot's Point. (Since Kay planned so well and had Abby near MLK, Jr. day we fortunately always have a long weekend to go down and celebrate.) It was a good time, as you can see from these pics:



So I'm thinking that we need to make a "sister outing" a tradition for this weekend. I haven't mentioned this to Kay yet, but I'm sure she'll agree. Kay? Whaddayathink?

This is why I should post more often. I get so wordy when I don't....

Here's to lots of sleep and warmth for all of you! And me, too!

Christmas

My family is strange and weird...

At Grandma Nash's, we get to open poppers.
They have treats, riddles...and crowns!

Favorite Christmas presents...
The kitchen!

Thomas!

A piggy bank! "Change?!" "Bullet?"

Finger puppets!

The Taggie elephant - so popular, Kay and I both bought the same one!


Our favorite things to do...

slice bread


play trains

help BeBe put on makeup

write letters to Santa

Mario Kart!


My favorite part of Christmas!

Being Thankful

At church, we have a monthly prayer focus where we join with churches all around the area to pray for a specific area. For December, it's for those who are lonely and without family. I've been feeling really sad lately about being single. (A normal thing, but I definitely go through ups and downs with it. Last week, the leader at Kid's Club made a totally normal innocent comment that "As far as I know, no one in this room has ever been pregnant" and it completely, completely crushed me. Out of the blue and for no reason) But that prayer and lunch today have forced me to think about how blessed I truly am. I have an amazing family that supports me no matter what. I have great friends that I can totally count on. For goodness sake, I have 217 Facebook friends! ;) God knows how incredibly weak I am, so he has given me a great support system.

Although, if you know any single, Christian, 30-something guys feel free to send them my way... ;)

Last thing for today. I promise. My favorite sister and her family made it to Lynchburg today (although I won't get to see them until next weekend :( ) and Brian rolled over! Yay!!! I don't have a picture of it, but I do have a picture of Brian, so here you go:
(I know, look at all that hair! That's what everyone says. At 10 weeks old in this picture, he already needs a haircut. Doesn't it make him look like a little old man? Isn't he just SO SWEET?)


Toodles!

Family Reunion!

We had a Clark (my mom's dad's family) reunion this past weekend down at Sunset Beach. We had a great time at the reunion, although it did make me miss my Grandaddy something fierce. He died 3 years ago, less than a year after our last reunion. His brother and sister look so much like him! Here are a few snapshots to give you an idea of how it went:

Unfortunately, on the ride back home, this is how it went:

Yes, that was my mom's car. But she and my grandmother (who was riding with her) are ok. God was very, very good to us that day.

I have been very blessed with a wonderful family who I love more than I can say. I know that not everyone is as fortunate as I am. You know what else I love though? Sleep. I desperately need some and I'm going there now.