10 years ago tonight

10 years ago today, i was sitting inside the County Line party room having dinner with my family and closest friends. It makes me somewhat sad to think that 2 people who were there that night are no longer with us. My grandpa Moe and our friend Mark have gone on to be with Jesus. We were eating Brisket, potato salad, beans, cornbread, and sipping on some ice tea. my little siblings were checking out the peacocks. i don't remember a lot of the conversation that night, but i do remember all the people who were there for me and Thomas. i remember that my 7 year old sister Mackinzie and I had on matching black and white polka dot dresses. i remember that it was pouring rain all day forcing us to eat inside rather than outside on the patio with all the peacocks. we smiled a bunch and I'm sure we laughed a lot too. My youngest sister, Elizabeth, was sitting in a high chair, she was only 9 months old. family members came from Lubbock, sundown, Dallas, Montana, north Dakota and Minnesota. many of them had never eaten barbecue before. i remember not eating much either because although i like brisket, i am not a fan of potato salad or baked beans or even cornbread. i remember getting a really sweet goodnight kiss from Thomas. i didn't sleep most of that night. i was much too excited about becoming Mrs. Thomas Van Dyke Head, Jr. the next day. 10 years ago on July 16th, i married my best friend. 10 years later we have 2 awesome boys and a precious daughter soon to join us. Life hasn't always been easy. theres been ups and downs, but its always been blessed. God has never once let us down. Thank You honey, for 10 wonderful years of wedded bliss. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 10 years ahead. I love You!

I was so excitied to get to see another ultrasound of my sweet little girl on Monday. she is growing good and trucking along in about the 54 percentile. my boys were always in the 90's so i'm thinking that maybe she will be a little smaller and more petite than the boys were. Thomas got to go along this time so i was glad for that. the tech gave us some ultrasound pics on a cd. i still don't know how to upload them though. thomas says he will try to put some up on our facebook page. we shall see...

as far as the cyst goes, we had a postitive report. the size is still the same, but the shape of it was different. it used to be an even round shape and now it is more of a pear shape with an uneven border. the tech said she thought that it was losing pressure inside and starting to shrink, similar to that of a helium balloon that was starting to shrivel up. i still have 12 more weeks until my due date and another 6 weeks until my post partum check up for that silly thing to shrivel up all the way and be gone. Not having surgery later would be the best!! i am praying beleiving for it to be gone BEFORE anna kate is born. i would really like to not have to worry about pumping milk ahead of time and praticing a bottle for her to have while i would be in surgery and during recovery.

thanks to all of you who've been praying for me!!

I am so thankful for my ob doctor! she really calmed my fears and concerns today. she told me today that she still feels that the best plan of action for now is to have a regular normal non-csection delivery. then, to come back 5 to 6 weeks after delivery and have a scope surgery done to remove the cyst.

and I agree completely!!!! this sounds like the best idea to me. it will give me some time to get nursing started, pump some extra milk for surgery day, and practice a little bit of the bottle before the surgery. then the surgery will only have me down for a day or two instead of the several weeks of a c-section. of course, im still praying for the cyst to just go away. dr. D thinks the only reason this would not work is if the cyst would begin to grow, it ruptures, or i would start having lots of pain. i haven't felt any true pain. i have felt some twinges and some pulling now and then, but nothing that i would have to stop and say, "i'm in pain." I still have an ultrasound on Monday with dr. A to see whats going on. i will probably see him every 2 to 3 weeks for awhile.

as a side note, Nathan has a double ear infection. on tuesday afternoon, he told us that his ear felt funny. he's had a cold for a few days so we thought maybe it was just some pressure built up. then, about 10 minutes later he comes to me and says "mom, i think you need to give me some medicine for my ear. it really hurts." i was digging in the medicine cabinet for some eardrops and tylenol when he starts crying and saying that it hurts really bad. i called or pediatrician's office hoping to get him in. it was only about 2:30. the receptionist told me dr.G was out of the office and that they were short on nurses and the other doctors in the office couldn't see him until the next morning. by this point, nathan is hysterical. we decided to take him to grace clinic. the copay there is $20 when the ER is $100. we had to wait about 20 minutes before they had us all checked in. the whole time nathan is crying and hollering rather loudly. the recptionist keeps looking at me and saying,"is he sick? does he not feel good?" duh!
He keeps crying and hollering that he hurts so bad, and keeps saying "i want to see the doctor" over and over. i am crying too because i don't know what to do for him. poor thing was in sooo much pain. finally we see the doctor. it really wasn't that long of a wait. they got us in pretty quickly, it just seems like a long time when your child is in pain. as i said, he has a double ear infection. she said that his ear canals where so swollen she couldn't even see his ear drums to tell if the infection was in the canal or behind the drum. however, at this time it was a mute point, either way he had to have antibiotics. also i found out that i wasn't giving him the right dose of tylenol. i wasn't giving him enough of a dose. that made me feel really bad that i could have helped him feel better sooner is i'd just upped the dose a little bit. live and learn, i guess.

we are getting ready for VBS next week at church. such an exciting time. it always brings me to tears to see the little ones giving their hearts to Jesus and asking Him to be the boss of their life and their forever friend. we can always use more help, so if you're not doing anything next week, come down and help us out!!

hey everyone! Just bared here. sitting in my bed, taking it easy, a little bored while the boys are taking a nap. they have been fighting off colds, so they were both pretty tired. I pumped them full of vitamin C and zinc. I would sure be mad if i had to miss out on a rockin' 4th of july party on saturday evening just because my kids had colds. Nor, do i want a cold either.

I have been enjoying listening to Gus-Gus singing the last couple of day. I am pet sitting for my parents. they brought me their Labradoodle Yogi and their parakeet. I am really digging the bird! never thought i would like to have one, but its really relaxing to hear him singing and chirping. the only problem would be T's bird dog. our cats are leaving the bird alone, but Sandy is very interested in Gus. My mom says i can't keep him when she gets home. I told T he will need to get me one though. and, poor Yogi, she doesn't seem to understand what's happened to her mommy. she darts out the front door everytime someone comes or goes. we've had to be real careful.

I got called to go to see my OB next week on thursday. she probably wants to visit some more about my options concerning the cyst situation. i will try to remember to update here. my next ultrasound with Dr. A will be on July 13th.