Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

First off, I've been tagged by Kristen!!

6 Random things about me....

1. OREOS....i absolutely love oreos....but, if the rows in the package are not even I cannot eat them. So, you always have to eat them in increments of 3, no matter what!!!

2. I have a major shin phobia. I hate shins.

3. I am blessed beyond belief with an incredible husband, daughter, family and friends.

4. I own 36 pairs of flip flops

5. I hate the original 90210 but love the new series!!

6. I'm blank right now!!!


And now to a post, ever hear the saying when it rains it pours?? Well I heard my dad say that over and over this weekend. And oh how true it seems. This weekend, Saturday morning, my dad left for Mississippi to do some mission work with a neighboring church. It was kinda crazy how it all happened. Ashalyn was supposed to be dedicated at church on Sunday so dad was a little hesitant about going but decided to. Nicholas and I spent the day Saturday talking about both our dads and just old memories. And Saturday night mom calls and asks us to come over because for some reason didn't want to be alone. Before we went Nicholas decided to take a nap, which never happens, so I was afraid he might be getting sick. We went over there and within a few hours mom's phone rings..."who is this?" came acrossed the other end from dad's cell phone, it was a woman. So with a puzzled response, mom answers Kathy and gets quiet. That's when my heart sank!! I knew something was wrong. Mom sat there taking in everything she was hearing with a complete blank face. So, Nick and I sit there just waiting for her to get off the phone. She hangs up and in disbelief says, "they took your dad to the hospital by ambulance". So now, mom's crying and we have to decide what to do....he's on his way to Mississippi and we have no clue where he's at, just know he's been on the road for 12 hours. No idea what's going on, nothing!!! So I hug mom and get on the phone to call my sister. And mom in the meantime feels the need to start packing and head out on the road. So now Nicholas and I are left to decide, do we go ahead with Ashalyn's baby dedication, knowing friends and family have already traveled here for it, or do we cancel and head out with mom. I start dialing Pastor Brad's phone number and mom's phone rings yet again. This time it's the hospital calling from dad's phone. They were prepping dad for life flight. He had suffered a heart attack. So mom's giving his social, his history, all his medications, etc. And then as soon as they mention lifeflight mom drops her head to the counter and bawls. He's hundreds of miles away and they won't tell us anything. So, mom asks to talk to dad and they put the phone to his ear. It was the most horrible experience ever, watching mom cry into the phone talking to my dad, begging him to hang on, saying how much she loves him and just bawling. With no response back. And all the sudden the call drops! How awful to leave a conversation like that with 11 hours on the rode to make it to where he is. So we cancel, call the family and 14 of us head out. Still with no address of where he is being lifeflighted to just headed in the direction of Alabama, we knew he was somewhere in AL! At 10:00 at night we take off, everyone's exhausted from crying, only to find out that both grandpa and Nicholas took a nap that afternoon.......both a little out of the ordinary, but God knew what he was doing obviously!!! So we drove through the night taking turns with our drivers. Halfway there we get an address finally and a little bit of an update. Huntsville Hospital, in Huntsville Alabama! Wait a minute I thought, my best friend lives in Huntsville. 650 miles away and of all the cities it could have happened in it happens in Huntsville, AL. Nick and I were just there last summer, so we were a little familiar with the area. The hospital was only 3 miles away from the hotel we stayed at. And Brandi was there and able to tell us where there were places close by to eat, stay, etc! It was great seeing her again as well! We pull into the hospital and they tell us that Mom, Chad Becky and I are the only ones allowed in to see him. He was in ICU, so none of us really knew what to expect. We walk in and first thing, dad starts crying!! What a relief!! He then tells us what happened. They got to where they were going to be stopping for the night, another praise, they were not midpoint road side! And he started to get real hot and told everyone he was having hot flashes. So he went to the restroom and thats where it all started. After 10 minutes one of the guys he was with popped his head in the door and found dad mid stream heart attack. He had to have 3 stints put in with there being 90% blockage at two and 60 at the 3rd. There was a fouth one that was instintable and will require open heart surgery, so they let that one go for the time being so he could get home to his own dr. During the surgery dad suffered cardiac arrest where his heart stopped for a bit. Praise God, there is not much heart damage!! He healed so quickly and made it home late last night!! He has to meet with the cardiologist here to schedule the repair of the 4th valve, so we still are praying for that!!! God watched over the entire family all weekend!!!!! So many things worked in our favor, i believe the worst glinch we had was the fact that we could not get a rental car, but thanks to mom's uncle and a good friend of dad's they drove up there Monday night and drove dad home so he had more room to move, our vans were pretty full!!!
While mom was at the hospital with dad, she receives a phone call from her boss' wife, (her boss passed away 2 weeks ago) saying, "i know this is the worst possible time to tell u this, but we are shutting the office down for the time being." She hasn't received the death certificate yet so the computer system has froze. So....now mom is out of a job for the time being, on top of all this.
Then, just as I'm telling Nicholas, "wow, what a week!" the phone then rings again. Nick answers and I hear, "What? Grandma's in the hospital?" My grandma Nofziger is now in the hospital.
And just last week, Nick's grandma Rice went in and had a pacemaker put in. It seems never ending lately. Not too long ago Grandpa was going through the same thing as dad. And Justin and Clarissa, I blogged about earlier. Man, I'm ready for the rainstorm to end!!!!
Thank you to all that were praying!! God is working in many ways, but please please don't stop!! Dad still has quite the road ahead of him leading up to his next surgery!! And also pray for grandma as well!! Thanks again!!!

ashalyn faith

i'd say it's time for a little update on Ashalyn. She is growing rather nicely. The dr was impressed at her 2 month visit (at 2 1/2 months). She has finally reached the 50 percentile in her weight at 10 ponds 13 ozs...she is getting so close to doubling her birth weight!! She has gone up in her height as well, and making it to the 25 %. And her head circumferance is in the 90 percentile!! As you can tell she is growing extremly fast. At first I was a little concerned, but the dr said that because of her low birth weight she will play catch up for a few months and then start slowing down.

As for her personality, she is getting to be sooo much fun! She is "coo"ing and smiling like crazy. She even has this little giggle that is to die for!! She is really trying hard to grab her toys...she bats at them, gets them swinging, and then can get them completely stopped enough to grab for a few seconds. We love just laying on the floor with her, as well as sitting back and just observing all her new little developments. She is so amazing!! She still enjoys her daytime naps, which makes night time a little hard, but we're getting there!!