Susie's Steps

Halloween is my favorite holiday.

I post on a message board (I would post the link, but it would do you no good, because it's HUGE password protected--it takes an act of congress to get in to read/post) of ladies that all have a child the same age as Malachi. We've been posting together since about January of 2003, when we all started finding out we were expecting--about 4 years. In any case, it is a wide variety of ladies from all walks of life. One of these ladies posted the other day, asking the Christian mommies what they thought about celebrating Halloween. This prompted a posting from one momma explaining about Samhain, All Hallows Eve and other historical Halloween facts. And another momma explained that she did not support any form of Halloween celebrations at all. Not even Fall Festivals. But most of the mommas were not very gung-ho on Halloween. A few did not take their kids trick or treating at all--just to their church's Fall Festival. And most mommas did not approve of scary costumes. Then, there was the candy issue. One momma decided that she would hand out little bottles of bubbles and bouncy balls, and other non-candy items. Another momma stated she would be handing out bags of pretzels. All this was applauded by many mommas.

LOL--so, I'm the bad one I guess. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love haunted houses, scary movies and candy. I trick or treated until I was 21 (I had Daniel when I was 22). If I ever found a house that consistently handed out anything but chocolate, that house was boycotted. My oldest son has a grim reaper costume this year (bought with the understanding that if he chose this one, he would have no costume to wear to the church Fall Festival). And I love scary movies. I've been watching the old Mummy movies with Boris Karloff all morning. It's currently "Phantom of the Opera" time. Flame away, folks. Just call me the Halloween Queen! ; )

I'm feeling fiesty today, aren't I? LOL!

Yay! It's Friday! : )

I still had something on the schedule last night (LOL). I had to go to Dollar General and buy jail supplies. Oh, well.

It's raining today. There is a 100% chance of rain here in the Heart of Dixie. When I related this to my officer, he laughed his fool head off and asked me, "Y'think?" Smart butt.
But I am rather glad it's raining. You see, my daughter's school Fall Festival is today from 3:30pm to 6:30pm. I was a little ill about that. Most people are working during that time. I am working during that time. That just doesn't make sense to have it at that time. I probably could have taken off for it, but I had already taken off for Halloween, so I could get my kids ready and take them trick or treating. And we're too short-handed to play with the schedule too much right now. And Madeline was very unhappy with me that she didn't get to go to the Fall Festival with her other friends because I had to work. And it didn't matter that she's already going to one Fall Festival and a Halloween party on Saturday night--not to mention Trick or Treating on Tuesday. :::sigh::: So, selfishly I guess, I was glad that it's supposed to rain all day. That's bad, isn't it?

Yay, I've made it to Thursday! Nothing on the schedule after work. Maybe I can get some laundry and housework done. I've been trying all week to get a little extra done, so that maybe I wouldn't have so much to do on Saturday. I always feel rather overwhelmed on Saturdays. And of course it hasn't helped that I've had my past few Saturdays tied up. This Saturday we have the Fall Festival, but that is in the evening, and as long as I don't sleep too late, I should be able to get quite a bit done.

My brain is fuzzy today! I didn't rest well enough, I guess.

It was so good to be with my kids last night--even though Madeline was in a mood. LOL. You can sure tell the difference between girls and boys. My daughter is SO much moodier than my sons. And really, she just needs to come home from school and take a nap. Then, she's okay for the rest of the night. I was always that way (and still get sleepy at 3pm every day), and my Momma was that way too. Unfortunately, she's at daycare after school, so she doesn't get that nap. Add Wednesday night services and Tuesday night baton lessons, and you have a pretty irritable little girl at times. She fussed and fussed at my combing her hair last night before church, until I suggested cutting it shorter. She stopped complaining then. Her hair is her pride and joy (I think Barbie may have something to do with that--LOL), and she loves to wear it down, but it gets rather tangled, because as ladylike as my Madeline looks, she is all rough and tumble. And I wouldn't have her any other way.
Daniel was such a help last night. I don't know what I'd do without him. He was helping me out, and he had a bad sinus headache. I finally gave him some medicine and sent him to bed.
Malachi was my little love bug as always. I'm thinking it's about time to clean his bed out again. LOL--every night lately, he wants to take some new stuffed animal to bed with him. So, he has quite the menagerie right now. I'll have to clean out the zoo and start with a blank bed again.

I think our ladies class last night was rather subdued. Maybe everyone else felt a bit like me. My spark had been lost long before class. I still enjoyed it, though. I'm always glad I came. I missed my Momma, aunt and grandmother, but I guess they didn't make it.

I'm smiling. I'm smiling.

I think it was Wednesday before last that we studied about worry in class. Guess I need to read that chapter over, because it didn't sink in. I keep taking my worries to the Father's Throne Room, but I think they must have a string attached to me somewheres, because they keep following me out of there! Okay, okay, I keep snatching them back. I think I need distracting. If I were home, I would clean. I did that a bunch last night after taking Madeline to baton. Reading is no good. I can't seem to convince my brain to concentrate. I would watch one of my Scream or Harry Potter movies, but I didn't bring them. AMC has a monster fest going on, but it seems to be vintage Frankenstein day. Not my favorites . . . But it will be okay! I know it will. I'm going to quit dwelling on these things and leave it in the Throne Room.

I'm glad it's Wednesday. We have ladies class tonight! I hope my Momma ccomes and brings my aunt and grandmother!

And I painted my nails. They're so pretty now. (Hey--have to take pleasure where I can find it--LOL!)

It's Monday . . .

I hate being negative, but that's what I've got today . . .

Does anyone else have their good and bad things come in multiples? It seems to me that things will go really good for awhile. And I guess I get spoiled, and I get to feeling invincible. Then the bad things come, and it's never just one thing at a time. I get one whopper, then before I can get over that one, about 3-4 more whoppers hit me. I'm ready to be off the anvil now. I'm not sleeping much, but the good thing is, I'm praying a lot more.

The weekend went pretty well. My grandmother and my aunt are in town. My little family and my Momma were there to greet them when they arrived on Saturday. Always nice for us girls to get together and talk. Sunday, my brother & family and sister & family came to visit. My daughter and my niece hugged twice when they saw each other. They were so happy to be reunited. They really are close. And my youngest son and my nephew actually played some together. They are finally getting to the age where they interact pretty well. My brother in law did really well yesterday. He stayed all day yesterday. We were kind of concerned he would be a bit uncomfortable, but he did well. It was a nice day. : )

Hope you had a nice weekend as well. : )

Well, Hance Vegas made the front page again . . .

I didn't get to post yesterday, because I got off at noon. It was so nice to pick my kids up after school and have the afternoon with them. And Malachi stayed in my lap or hugging my legs all afternoon. He's my little lovebug. And we were able to get dinner and baths out of the way before church--and even get there on time. Then, when we got home, the younger two got to go to bed early, and my older son got to have some one on one time with momma. What a nice day.

Malachi cracked me up yesterday afternoon. My sofa sits in a corner in my living room, so there is a little space behind it. Malachi (my little monkey) hiked himself up and over the top of the couch, landing behind it. We've corrected him on that before. He got behind where I am sitting on the couch and said, "Mommy, help me! Help me!" I told him I am not helping him, because he knew he wasn't supposed to get back there in the first place. A pause, then he replied, "I love you, byebye!" My oldest son and I sat shaking with silent giggles at that. Then, the little devil squeezed himself out at the side of the sofa! What would I do without kidgiggles?

My grandmother and my aunt are driving up from Houston this weekend. If you will, say an extra prayer for safe travel. We will be so glad to see them! I love very little in this world more than to sit surrounded by my entire extended family and sing with them. It lifts my spirits to a level not often reached. I know I've said it before, but I'm convinced that when we get to Heaven, we will all sing, talk and laugh. I can't wait! : )

Here I am again . . .

Well, since my birthday is gone, I've been trying to eat a little healthier (because we all know that I am not going to eat healthy on my birthday!). My sister Daisy eats healthy ALL the time. She's quite strict about it. I'm afraid you won't find me quite that disciplined. And I'm not giving up my carbs, either. :::read rebellious tone::: I'm not a fan of lo-carb diets. :::stepping off of that soap box hurriedly::: But I'm just trying to make healthier choices. This is a bit of a challenge in that I sell chocolate here in dispatch. Why I do that is another story . . .
But since I have been trying to do the healthy thing, I'm reading (and re-reading--I learned a lot of this for my fitness certification) up on things related to that. One thing that I was reading about was the idea that your body can fool you. You will think that you are hungry, but sometimes you just need to drink more. Your body can confuse thirst for hunger. So, if you just drink some water, your need will be fulfilled. It sounded a lot like my relationship with God. Throughout my life, I've thought I needed things. A successful career, a husband, children, material possessions, entertainment, etc. And all those things bring me great joy. But the real thing I needed was God. God is my Living Water. Plain and simple. : )

It's Monday again. : ) Hope you all had a nice weekend.

Friday night was hellacious! I left here and had to go to Dollar General for some general supplies for the jail. This time the manager was there, so I didn't have to help anyone ring it up. I left there, and there was a bad wreck on the main highway going home. We were just stopped. Nowhere to go. The police had the highway blocked. So, I just waited it out. Then I had to go to Verizon to pay my cell phone bill, and I think they were having a statewide party at our Walmart. There were as many people there as there is usually a couple of days before Christmas. And they all drove like they were intoxicated! It was very scary for me, and I just wanted to go home with my babies! I finally got home close to 8pm!

Saturday I got to sleep in. Ooooh, what a luxury. LOL--Malachi decided we should get up and eat at 7:30am. But that feels infinitely better than 4:30am! I was in the process of getting things done around the house (that I don't get a chance to do during the week) when my back seized up! It was bad. I couldn't move or even take a deep breath. John was going to rub some muscle rub on it that night, but Malachi woke up, so no muscle rub for me! Daniel had a movie/munchie night and had a ball!

Sunday was about the same with my back. Have you ever tried to put tights on with a spasming back? Quite the challenge. Momma mentioned that I wasn't singing the soprano part on "The Greatest Command" very loudly. Hard to push that diaphram out when your back is seizing. I finally gave in and took 2 Soma and John rubbed some of that muscle rub in. I was asleep before he finished. It was some better when I woke up, and I went to church. John rubbed some more stuff in before bedtime, and I woke up a new woman today. I can even sneeze!

Now, if I could just throw off these afternoon sleepies . . .

BTW, a young woman made a very disturbing statement in Bible class yesterday. She used to attend another smaller church in the vicinity. Many of her family attends there, and I believe she has attended there most if not all of her life. I met her in a MOPS group, and I had been trying to lure her over to church with me. She has two small children, and I thought they might have more activities at our congregation (I can already hear my grandmother telling me that we are not a country club, but we're not going in that direction at the moment.). After attending our VBS, this little family came to attend our church. She was told by members at the smaller congregation that by attending my congregation, she would be sentencing herself and her children to hell. Is anyone as sick about this as I am? You know, I knew that some of our bretheren really felt this way deep down, but I never thought anyone would actually say it out loud to someone. I'm really bothered by this . . .

My brother in law is doing pretty well. He's home. My sister took off last week to help him some. Please continue to pray for their family.

Okay, okay, I know I've written a novel. I better go for now anyway. One of my officers just checked out another ticket book!

Have I mentioned I love Thursdays? The kids and I have NOWHERE we have to be tonight. YAY! Maybe I can make it to bed a bit earlier. I know I must sound like a broken record, but I never get to bed at a decent hour. There are only so many hours in the day. And I'm just gonna rant a little bit. I've got two of them.

What is with these teachers giving so much homework on Wednesday nights? I know it may be different in other towns or cities, but in our town, lots of kids go to church on Wednesday nights. And most of the teachers here are Christians. Why would Wednesday night be the biggest homework night of the week? By the time Daniel & I were finished with church, dinner, and homework, it was almost 11pm! I was not the happy camper.

My second rant involves a sermon that I heard recently. One of the speaker's pet peeves was parents that let their children stay home to finish homework instead of going to church. May I also add that this speaker is a newlywed and has no children whatsoever. Grrr. If there's one thing that makes my teeth itch it's people telling parents how to raise children with nothing but book knowlege to go on. If I were a magician, I would pause time, and put him in my shoes raising my oldest child from day one until the present. Then, I would turn him loose and watch him babble and drool. I would also admire the beautiful new silver highlights dappling his hair. Wonder what he would say then???

:::breathing deeply::: Okay. I'm okay now. Working a little harder on "loving my neighbor". Going to work a little harder on getting to bed earlier tonight. Did I mention that my adorable youngest learned how to cluck his tongue. Did I tell you how he makes funny little faces while he clucks his tongue in Walmart and other popular locations? And did I also speak of how he clucks his tongue in his sleep?! And he sleeps in my room? Help!

It's been an unusual day. Be very careful when driving. I think the devil has set loose an imp causing traffic accidents everywhere. We've just been deluged with them--and it's not raining here . . .weird.

I'll try and be more positive tomorrow. Ick. I hate venting!

I am having a rather nice birthday. : ) LOL--John forgot this morning (but of course who knows or remembers anything at 4:30am?), but when I got here to work, there was a whole bunch of police and dispatchers on the porch hollering "Happy Birthday!" And the whole building is papered with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSIE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!" signs. LOL. I reckon nobody up here could possibly forget that today is my birthday with all these signs up! John called at around 6:30am to sing (with the kids) happy birthday to me. It was so sweet! And I got an ecard from JettyBetty (on the blogs) and Price posted a happy birthday sparkly on my myspace page. And one of the city dispatchers put a birthday greeting on my myspace. And now you sent me a happy birthday message! How cool is my day?!

And HEY! My fun buttons are back! I have color, font, pics, you name it! I'll see if it will let me post pictures from that parade last month!

An update from my sister Daisy . . .

Hey guys! We got Brandon's laptop up at the hospital now so I'm now able to send out these update emails again. The doctor came in this morning and said that Brandon's lung was no longer collapsed. He had reinflated it. GREAT news! He also said that although the fluids in the lung were improving, there was still too much to take out the chest tube. Hopefully it'll improve enough by tomorrow. Once they take out the chest tube, it'll be another 24 hours of observation before we can leave. Also, the respiratory therapist checked out Brandon's xrays and said that he no longer needed to do his breathing treatments. That his chest xrays looked really good and there was no longer a need for the treatments. One less reason to wake him up twice a night to mess with him. Everything is really looking on the up and up but please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Thanks,
Daisy

LOL--it doesn't feel like a Monday. Since I had to go in to work yesterday, it feels more like a Tuesday. But I am glad it's a Monday. Mondays are the days I go home, and my husband is home. Tuesday through Friday, he works nights, so Mondays are nice. : )

LOL--poor John. He got the kids up at 6am like normal only to have Daniel tell him, "I've got some clothes to wear, and I'm gonna take a shower even though we have no school today." :::giggle::: No going back to sleep for John. I kinda felt badly, but I've done the same thing before, so it's kinda funny.

Tomorrow's my birthday, and even though I have to work, I have all my scary movies lined up and waiting. Yay!

Not much going on today. Started out, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, but now, people are IIIIIILLLLLLL! But not me :::grinning mischievously::: It's my birth month! ; )

Hope you all have a fantastic rest of today!

Hello. It's Sunday, and I'm not at church! Due to an unexpected turn of events, here I am at work again. Oh,well. At least I had Friday off, so it's all good, I guess. I got some of my birthday presents early, so here I sit watching I Know What You Did Last Summer 1 & 2 and Scream 1, 2, and 3. Now, I don't have to rent them for my birthday. That's what I usually do on my birthday, I rent all the horror movies I can watch while the kids are at school. Okay, now you know my guilty secret . . . I love horror movies! But my husband does not enjoy them. So every year on my birthday, I rent those movies, have doughnuts for breakfast and pizza rolls or Taco Bell for dinner. This year, due to circumstances at work, I couldn't do that on my birthday (the 10th), but I was able to take Friday off and do my celebrating then. My brother and and my parents took me to a steakhouse for lunch on Friday. And my Momma took me to Homestead Hollow on Saturday. It's like a huge craft fair in Springville, Alabama. I got me a cute little purse. I've needed one for quite some time as I had a hole in the liner of my old purse and kept losing things in that hole!

We went to the hospital on Saturday as well, to see how Brandon was doing. He's doing LOTS better. I praise God and thank you all for your prayers on his behalf. He's off the respirator, and for the most part, is in his right head. He's still a tiny bit confused. LOL--he told Andy (my brother) that he had a deviated septum and told me that he had a broken clavicle. When we asked him where he broke these things, he pointed to his scapula (shoulder blade). He's bound to be a little loopy. He's still on some pain meds. He sat up at one point, and the entire right side of his back is absolutely BLACK. It's the worst bruising I have ever seen in my entire life. My Momma and I are praying for wisdom to come with healing. But he's doing much better. He thinks he's gonna get out before my birthday (Tuesday). I don't know if that will happen or not. But we're glad he's doing much better.

Gotta run! Time to put I Know What You Did Last Summer 2 in the DVD player. ; )

Brandon is quite disoriented at times but other times not. He was really worried about the girl on the bike with him. He hoped she didn't remember anything. I think he was beatin himself up over it. He's also really missing Alyssa. It's hard to hear him because his voice is so hoarse and he has an oxygen mask partially over his mouth as well. He's also very frustrated about being there. The nurse said the disorientation was probably the pain medicine. He asked for a cup and when I said he couldn't have anything to drink yet, he said that he wanted his fifty cents then! I told him he didn't have fifty cents! Anyway, it was just little stuff like that....humerous....but not. He's coughing up stuff really well and also being pretty cooperative with the nurses. He doesn't seem to understand why he can't leave. He said that "they were going to come in here and get me off this bed and I'm going to get my stuff and go home." When I was leaving he started kicking the covers off and saying noooo at me leaving and said, "I wanna leave! I wanna leave!" and the nurse said "you can't leave Brandon". He said "Why can't I LEAVE?!?!?" she explained that he was sick .... that's when I was walking off. Poor Brandon. I feel so bad for him! At least he's doing well on his breathing treatments.

And again from Daisy at 10:30am . . .

Brandon was doing really well. His CT scan showed that everything inside was improving. He still has the huge contusion on his right lung and it's going to take a lot of really hard work to get it back up and running but there's definitely been some progress. They are also going to try to excavate (remove the breathing tube) this afternoon. They're shooting for 2:30, but no promises of course. He is being weaned off his meds so he can be alert and do what he needs to do when he's excavated. This will definitely cause him to be irritable and very frustrated. He has to stay calm though, or it will mess up his oxygen levels and they won't excavate if his oxygen levels aren't where they need to be. He now has the morphine button, but his atavan has been drastically reduced. So instead of getting to sleep through the horrible condition he's in, he has to be awake and alert for excavating. However, all this is progress. Hopefully by 2:30 it will be out. He will then be forced to cough and breathe deep breaths and have breathing treatments done every hour day or night. This will cause excrutiating pain but if it is not done, the breathing tube goes back in. More updates coming after the 2:30 session.

Daisy

Update from Daisy . . .

I called last night at 11:00 and 1:00. At 11:00, they were about to do a 2 hour test on Brandon's ventilator to see how he will react when they take the ventilator out. It's the closest test they can run to give them an idea of how well he would do off the ventilator. He was in pain but had been given medicine shortly before I called (it was the good nurse, that's why). When I called at 1:00, Brandon was being very upset and thrashing around in the bed. When the nurse, Erin, told me, I was like, "Really? Right this second?" and she said "Yes! Like, RIGHT NOW." Then she said, "Brandon calm down, it's ok...lay back down". I told the nurse I wished I could talk to him. She offered to put the phone up to his ear. So when she did, I started telling Brandon that he needed to be calm and just relax. Because the more he slept, the faster time would go by and the more comfortable he would be. If he just would relax and rest, that tube would be out in no time and he'd feel a lot better. Then I started singing our little song that we sing to each other: I love my Doodie, oh yes I do....I love my Doodie, he loves me too....when he's not with me, I'm blue....I love my Doodie, oh yes I do! When I stopped singing and just didn't talk anymore, the nurse picked back up the phone. I said "How is he?" She said, "When you first started talking to him he was nodding, 'Yes' and now it looks like he's asleep." When I called this morning, he was thrashing in the bed again. Poor guy is just fed up with everything. We're hoping the breathing tube will be taken out sometime today but of course all that is dependant on how his lung is looking in the most recent CT scan they took last night.

Keep up the prayers, PLEASE.

Daisy

Daisy again--

I just got back from seeing Brandon at his 10:30 visitation. Let's go with the good stuff first... His bloodwork came back negative for a bacterial infection. His urine however came back positive. That's nothing the antibiotics can't fix. Also, the fluid from his lungs is still being processed and that will be the thing that really pinpoints any bacterial issues. A chest scan has already been ordered for today so that should happen HOPEFULLY sometime soon. But sometime today either way. Now on to the other stuff.... Brandon's hands have been strapped since his nurse got there at 7:00. Apparantly he sat up enough to lower his head to his hands and almost completely pull out his feeding tube (there was only about 6 inches left to pull out). Then he proceeded to reach for his respirator tube (breathing tube). There goes any special treatment of getting his hands untied. While I was there, Brandon was really fired up. He was yanking and pulling HARD on his hands trying to get them loose from the restraints. He was trying to sit up and I'm thinking do what he did before by sitting up and bending over towards his hand to get that stuff out. It was very nerve racking and upsetting to watch him do all this. The visit was not a pleasant one at all. As Andy and Nana both said (Nana came up there for visitation, Andy didn't make it but I told him over the phone), they both feel that this could be a good sign. It could be that we have "Brandon" back and he's tired and fed up with all that crap all in him. Andy said, "You know how Brandon is. He's probably thinking that he doesn't need all that stuff and that those doctors don't know what they're talking about...he's just fine and can breathe on his own without all those things". True. That does sound like Brandon's way of thinking. Oh, another thing, the nurse had just given Brandon his dose of atavan 15 - 20 minutes before we got there. Maybe it hadn't settled into his system yet. I only stayed 20 minutes....10 of which was spent talking to the nurse. I felt it was better to leave him alone and let him sleep -- less frustration for him that way.

From Daisy:

I talked to Erin (the night time nurse - I like her) last night and again this morning. They gave Brandon a bath and she put this shower cap thing on his head that will basically wash his hair without water.
She said he's been sleeping well and all of his signs throughout the night were really good. The guys (Andy & Jeff) went by last night but weren't there long and he was still sedated when they came by. They prayed over him and left him to sleep. The nurse said not to freak out when I saw him today because after she put that shower cap on his head, she combed out his hair. Of course it had all that dried up blood and grass in it. So she asked Brandon if it would be ok to just pull it back away from his face and abrasions. He said yes, so she pulled it up on top of his head. She said he looks a little like pebbles now. ha ha
But at least it's out of that abrasion and cleaned up. She also said he woke up once in the middle of the night and was moving around so she asked him if he needed more pain medicine. I'm guessing he said no because she said she gave him a couple mg of atavan to make him more comfortable and other than that, he's been sleeping well the whole time.
Erin has a similar demeaner as Melanie (the daytime nurse I really like that's had yesterday and today off) and I think Brandon likes the nurses that are cool with him like that. I know I would. Today's nurse is Sam. Sam is a boy
nurse. That's really all I know. Guess we'll see him at 10:30.

Oh, also, Erin untied his hands last night too. I told her I knew that made him happy. He just hates how they keep his hands tied down. She said he had his hands crossed over his chest all cute. I told her that's really all he was wanting to do and he can't with his hands being tied up.

Daisy Simpson

Here is the latest from Daisy:

I just got back from visiting Brandon. His temp is still up but not as bad as it was. It is at 100.5 at the moment. They are concerned that he has pneumonia in his right lung. It is also partially colapsed. They are planning on doing a bronchoscopy today to go in and clear out some of the blood and fluid in his right lung. From that fluid, they will be able to pinpoint if that lung does indeed have pneumonia. They can not take him off the respirator quite yet because with his lung still being partially collapsed, they're afraid he wouldn't be able to
breathe deep enough to help reinflate it. He was not feeling well at all but seemed slightly better than yesterday (probably the drop in temp helped). He's mad at the restraints on his arms and the respirator tube down his throat. He's also, as can be imagined, extremely uncomfortable. They have him on morphine, atavan and three different antibiotics until they can pinpoint the bacterial infection, in which case the three will narrow down to one. Hope this helps explain things for you. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Daisy

For those of you that have responded promising prayers for my brother-in-law, I can't thank you enough. Please keep praying.

Brandon is not doing so well. He developed a fever yesterday, spiking at 103.8, and they think he has pneumonia. They had to put a feeding tube in yesterday, and he was not very happy about that. But the fact that he was not happy is better than him not being here to be unhappy. The hospital has put Brandon on 3 different antibiotics, and they are running all kinds of tests.

Daisy is still holding strong. I'm so proud of the way she is just stepping up to the plate in this situation. She's doing so well and taking care of business. Her employer is being very understanding, and letting Daisy leave during the day to hop over to the hospital during the 30 minute visiting times. She is blessed to only work a few blocks over.

Please keep praying for Brandon and Daisy and all of my family as we try to support them any way we can.

Hello Bloggerville!
I have had a looooong weekend, but not as long as my sister has! I have a prayer request:

Saturday morning at around 2:30am, I got a call that my sister Daisy's husband had a really bad motorcycle accident. John wouldn't let me drive down there by myself, so John, the kids and I all packed up and left for UAB hospital where Brandon was. We're not sure what exactly happened besides the fact that Brandon took someone for a ride on his motorcycle and wrecked on Interstate 65. He has broken ribs, and his scapula (shoulder blade) is broken in several places. He had a deflated lung and blood in his lungs. He also had a lacerated liver. They had to give him a unit of blood. They had some trouble with his blood pressure as well. They would give him morphine for the pain, but his blood pressure would go down, so they would ease up on the morphine, but his pain level would cause his blood pressure to spike. So, they were trying to balance that. His lungs were not working on their own, so he had to be put on a ventilator. We were with Daisy from 4am until about 7:30pm. I finally got to go in with Daisy at 10:30am. He was finally conscious at this time, and rather upset that he couldn't talk. He gestured for a cell phone so he could text, but cell phones weren't allowed. He wanted paper and pencil, but they weren't sanitary enough. It was very strict in there. They allowed only 2 people at a time. Visitation was at 10:30am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, and 8:30pm--and only 30 minutes of visitation. So, it was rather difficult to arrange it so everyone would get to see Brandon. Daisy was a trooper throughout the day, showing that strong backbone that she's got. And she was so gracious about letting other people who hadn't gotten to see Brandon yet in first--even before herself. I watched her struggle so hard to stay upbeat and positive, when I know she had to be in an absolute panic. And the financial aspect is very stressful as well. Please pray for my sister and really my whole family during this time.

I love all of y'all. : )