Janet and Laurie's Surgery Day One: Check-in and Check-ups

Well today started out amazing! I got up and started getting ready about 5:15 am, Laurie had just walked in and we started getting ready for the day ahead. Our first part of the day was getting breakfast, and Laurie wanted to go eat at the Farmer's Market downtown. So we met Louise and Nathan there for breakfast at 7:00 am. It was soooo good and Phil and JoAnn Norton, who own it, also go to church with us and have been so good to us throughout this whole process, sat down at the table with us and just talked. It was a nice relaxing way to start the day!! They are some of the nicest people I know. I am so thankful for people like them. Down home just all around nice caring Christian people. We are blessed.

Leaving from a high of being there Laurie and I get on the road, Nate went to work and Louise was heading to Birmingham after work. I get about 2 miles out of Montgomery and blue lights come flashing behind me....in the midst of Laurie and I talking I had missed that the speed dropped from 70 mph to 50 mph.....needless to say I was speeding. The state trooper was a complete JERK....let me insert here that I don't like to give cops a hard time, I was speeding and I know that but you do NOT have to show your tail just because you are a trooper. So after about a 15 minute cry session we decided that wasn't going to start our day off bad. So we kept on trucking it to Birmingham.

We got here and checked in and got Laurie and Janet both admitted and settled into rooms. To our surprise we already had one visitor waiting on us. Brother Barry Buford was here ready to pray with Laurie and Janet and it was so very nice. That was just the beginning. From then on out we had people in Laurie's room checking all of Laurie's vitals and taking blood and giving IV's. Laurie was a champ she did amazing through all of it and all the nurses and Dr.s just love her and think she is amazing....just like the rest of us. I know tomorrow is going to be great. Laurie and Janet both have already impacted this hospital and I know it's just the start of whats going to happen. God is so good and he has blessed us so much with this surgery.

Below are some snapshots I took of Laurie and Janet...since I got my new camera I VOWED I would definitely be documenting everything from here on out! So far I have stayed true to that. Hope you all enjoy! Sorry they all aren't in order! (Also Louise got here later and we didn't get one picture with her or Ellie :) But we will get many more tomorrow!)

Chuck, Janet and Rachel before going to bed :)

Janet and Rachel :) How cute are they??
Me and Laurie looking at the afghan that Aunt Shirley sent and made for Laurie :)

Me and Laurie enjoying our show....didn't work out so well for us...we will be re-watching Rookie Blue on Monday :)

Janet and all her visitors...from Left to right: Aunt Betty, David, her brother, Janet, Chuck, and Chuck's mom.

Mom and Dad got here about 6:45 pm and this is her and mom enjoying her down time. :)

Laurie and her music therapist.....Laurie REALLY enjoyed her!!!! :) She sang us some Beatles songs and she was REALLY good!!

Laurie and Cora....Cora.....she is a character. She sang and danced around and said the Holy Spirit was moving her and she was praying for Laurie! :) It brought tears to Laurie's eyes when she started singing to her.

Laurie and Janet first thing this morning!! :)

Chuck trying to help out a friend! :) He is a great supporter!

Janet resting right after she got to her room!! It is FREEZING in this hospital....but don't worry I can prepared! Blankets and sweatshirts :)

Laurie and MaryAnn....she is amazing and I am so glad we got her for Laurie's transplant coordinator! I am going to send her a card with this picture in it! :)

Well that is all for tonight. I will update more tomorrow night! :) Goodnight blog world!! Keep Laurie and Janet in your prayers!

Update on my life.....

SO I know it's been almost a month since I blogged so I am just going to give a brief summary of everything that has been going on in my life over the past month!

• Well my last post was about braces.....I have officially had them now for almost a month and I have already made my first payment.....I have a LONG 23 more months a head of me with those payments! The following 2 pictures have been my lifesaver over the past 2 weeks. I absolutely love them!!!

Phillips Sonicare Toothbrush.......LOVE IT!

The Water Pik :) It is like the "water flosser" and I love it!

• We have had 4 Showers for Louise and Baby Ellie and boy she is spoiled rotten already! I am so excited about her coming and it's hard to believe that it is almost JUST ONE MONTH AWAY!!!! I just can't wait to hold her and love on her! But the showers aren't done yet....we still have 3 more!
• I celebrated my birthday :) Got the most amazing gifts this year.....A Nikon D3000 camera (from Mom and Dad, Laurie, Nate, and Nate's parents), my very own pair of Costa's (From Nate :)), a trip to Atlanta (Louise and Dirt, Justin and Michelle), and a Coach purse (Taylor and Blake :)! Talk about doing it BIG for my 25th! I have the best family and friends ever! I really do! They outdid themselves this year!
• We have also celebrated Laurie's birthday too! We all went to Atlanta and had the best time, with the exception of Louise getting a little over heated....but it was so good and so much fun!
• I got a new boss at work! Keith, my old boss had been Director of Admissions for 17 years and got a promotion so we got Mr. Tim Stickel from Fairbanks, AK.....You read that right......ALASKA! :) He has been great so far kinda excited to see what the future holds with him.
• All of my freshman have moved in for the year.....THANK GOODNESS! This has been one of the roughest years yet....I think for the whole office....the economy has taken a toll on us this year.
• We, (me, Laurie, and Louise) got to take Morgan on her first pedicure!!! It was so much fun! We got to witness all her expressive faces and I just love it! She is absolutely one of the funniest children I have ever been around! And I think she actually liked getting it done! I will post pictures of that later!
• The biggest news is that Laurie and Janet have a set surgery date! It is this Friday, the 13th. I know Friday the 13th....But I am just positive that it is going to be great! I know that the surgery will be successful and Laurie and Janet both will do great! (For those of you that may not know, Laurie is donating her Kidney to Janet, a woman that works with Louise. It has been a long hard road to get to this surgery date but we are so thankful it is finally here! :)) Laurie and Janet both check in Thursday at 10:00 AM. Janet will have to stay at UAB for 3 weeks but hopefully Laurie should be able to come home on Monday. I covet your prayers during this time as we all are travelling and just for everything to go smooth. Laurie would never admit it but I think she is getting nervous and I know Janet is nervous and anxious all in one! So please please remember Laurie and my family, and Janet and her family in your prayers!!

Well I guess that pretty much sums it up! I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and I will post updates from the hospital on Laurie and Janet. I will staying in the hospital room with Laurie so I will probably have some time on my hands to update! :)

Today is the day....

Yep, today is the actual day I get my braces finally. After having 4 teeth pulled, and well 2 of them being the most unpleasant experience of my life to date, I am getting my braces put on today. Please do not expect before and after pictures right now. I have no desire to take a picture of what my teeth look like, for those of you that don't know me very well, I will admit I am a little vain and I VERY self conscious of my teeth. But I am working on that because whether people are just being nice and lying most people say they have never noticed my teeth. But I on the other hand have and have for the longest time. Now, I guess being an adult and being able to provide for myself I am taking the plunge for braces! So wish me good luck and I REALLY hope I don't look all crazy with braces, even though I just know I am going too! Thanks in advance!

July 4th and Such!

Well July is here....all 4 of the teeth that had to be pulled in my mouth are pulled and I am happy to report I am feeling good! :) July 14th I have my braces put on and I am nervous (I know Louise what am I not nervous about these days!?! :)) about that! That weekend is not only my quarter of a century birthday but it's Laurie's 10 year anniversary of her 20th Birthday and Louise, Michelle and I have planned a weekend of fun for her!! SO I can not let my teeth get in the way of all that fun! :) So that is the latest on the teeth situation!

This past weekend was 4th of July and I can honestly say it was the best 4th of July ever! We had so much food and so much fun!!! The party consisted of the following people: Laurie, Nathan, Mr. Terry, Mrs. Jacki, Taylor Lane, Justin, Michelle, Morgan, Kristen McCants, Louise (And Baby Ellie :)), Dustin, Kesia, Steve, and Devin. We had a full house and we loved every minute of it! Laurie and I, or should I say Laurie woke up first and quietly came in and woke me up saying this was going to be the best day of the year....and SHE WAS RIGHT!! We both got up and got ready and she started cooking while i was in the shower and after that we loaded up and headed to get Morgan so she could run some last minute errands with us and let Michelle clean, cook and get ready. So we went to Old Navy and bought the party favors for the girls :), and then to winn dixie to get a few things we had forgotten!

After running our errands we got back to the house and my friend April was waiting at the house to visit with me for a couple hours and eat! It was so nice to be able to visit with her and catch up! She is a really great friend and she always brings back good memories and I love her life stories! :) Then Nate came over with his parents and brought the grill and they got everything set up and ready. It was the beginning of a great day! We proceeded to make most of the following stuff in the picture! It was so so so good and so much fun!! Again like I stated before it was the best 4th I can remember! :) Even if we did miss the fireworks bc the waitress at O'Charley's was SLOW AS MOLASSES! But we proceeded to have our own fireworks with some sparklers! :)

This next weekend will be fun too! It is Louise's 1st baby shower! We are excited and look forward to her having MANY MANY MORE! :)

Family Reunion 2010

This past weekend we had our annual Palmer Family Reunion! This is all of my Nana's side of the family and it is always something I look forward to!! It is so fun to see all of my cousins and catch up on what is going on in their lives!

We left out on Friday afternoon/night to head to Lake Guntersville, near Huntsville, to meet up with Mom and Dad, who had been there already for a day! Dirt, my brother in law, was so excited about taking the Jeep, which is his pride and joy and it is so very nice and so fun, with top down all the way up there! And me and Louise, knowing what submissive women we are agreed happily! :) (LOL) We loaded up our jackets and headed north! About when we got to Clanton we started smelling rain, you know the smell rain has! Me and Louise just looked at each other....little further down the road we started seeing lightning! I could see the boys snickering in the front seats and me and Louise just kept on smiling....little bit longer and my brother in law turns around and ask if we want to wait it out...well in true Walker fashion, Louise shoots back with " Well no, it could rain all night!" So we stopped to get gas and while there the boys pulled the soft top over, so we were a little sheltered but still had no windows or doors :) But Louise and I just smiled and scooted close to each other and sang our little hearts out to Cornerstone! :)

It only rained for about 20 minutes maybe and then is was smooth sailing from there! Made it to the Chalae about 10:15pm and the boys were headed out to bow fish. From what I hear Dad was pretty stinkin excited about going fishing and Dirt bringing the boat! :) They had a pretty exciting night too...maybe one day we can blog about that but I just feel like that is a story that Dirt and Nathan must tell in person...wouldn't do it justice to blog it! :) But Saturday it rained and we got some good visiting time with the cousins and Mom. :) These are a few of my pics from the family reunion! The little girl is Hollie, my little cousin! She is so fun and I REALLY hope Louise post the videos of her talking about Ellie! :) TOO CUTE! :)

This is me and Brice! He is absolutely precious!! I just love his little face!

Me and Nate....It was absolutely beautiful up there!
I just thought this was a precious picture. Like father like son...with balding anyways! :)

Shannon and Darl! Darl is out cousin who was diagnosed with lymphoma and has recently had a stem cell transplnat and he looked amazing! It was so wonderful to see him!

This is generation #4 of the Palmers! (Missing a couple of course!)

Oldest and Youngest....taken every year!

Nana and her 2 sisters. Papa is the only spouse still alive.

Our "Copeland" side of the family

Me and Hollie :) Love this girl!

Me, Aunt Harriet, and my dad :)

Hollie saying "CHEEEEESSSSEEE" :)

The Situation.....

Well I have officially started my braces process! And boy has it been a heck of a week! Last Wednesday I went for my appt to have 2 (of the 4 TEETH I HAVE TO HAVE REMOVED) teeth pulled. I was very VERY nervous about all of this. I went to the Dr. with Michelle, who bless her heart didn't know what she was getting her self into with me...I wasn't really sure how long it would take but when I asked the dental hygienist that was helping she said, "oh, maybe 10-15 minutes max!", which I was glad of bc Michelle had taken off to take me. (Laurie and Louise both offered but Louise was leaving to go out of town this week and Laurie had a Dr. appt in Anniston and she needed to rest so Michelle was more than willing to help!) Well 2 hours after she had told me that I was done. He told me I would be sore because my teeth were in there good....(I must insert that it was here that I said....well you idiot teeth that have been in my bone for 25 YEARS ARE NOT MEANT TO COME OUT!! I think that was part of God's plan right?!?) But anyways, I bit my numb tongue and just smiled, as much as I could since I was numb to my ear on my left side.

SO Michelle stopped and filled my pain medication and then took me to the house. I was a little emotional and just cried when I talked to Nate on the phone after I left. I was in NO pain at that point because I was still so numb which was great but I guess I just dreaded the numbness wearing off! And boy was I right!! I was absolutely miserable! And Have been up until last night when I finally found some good stuff to make the pain go away and BOY DID IT WORK! I will be doing that little diddy from now on! :)

So next appt is on the 24th of this month....hopefully it wont be as bad but I am so dreading not being able to chew on either side...I know I will be happy with the end result but man I am so not happy with it right now. So I guess as I continue to update "the situation" I just ask for your prayers during all of this....I am very nervous and to be honest probably more vain than anything else.

But hopefully within the next month my mouth will look like this:

Things that annoy me....

1. I can not stand for people to beat around the bush about things....especially when it comes to my love life or work life....when I ask your opinion please tell me the truth and do not use examples of other people to try to subtly get the point across...THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY!
2. IF you hired me to do my job, please do not try to do it for me...That is what you pay me for....also if you are not in my job PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO TELL ME HOW TO DO IT! You do not know because you have never done it!

Is it possible to just fast forward through the next 2-3 years and not have to deal with all this crap anymore?!?!