Blood clot situation.

So, I finally went to see a hematologist yesterday.
I thought I would update you on how my clot is doing.
I call him Bob.  The clot.  Seemed like it needed a name.
It's part of me now.

So, in October, I was put back in the hospital for 3 days because of an infection in my clot leg.
It was just a superficial infection, but they worry about the clot breaking loose and going to my lungs so off I went to the hospital room with the gassy lady.  Boy wasn't that a treat?

They discovered then that there was a new clot.  So, I had infectious disease Dr's and hematologists and vascular surgeons and every one else visiting me in my room for 3 days trying to figure out what to do.  It was special.

And then they put my on antibiotics and sent me home.  Took all of them to figure that out.  Nice.

And so, on to the hematologist appointment.

There are several things she was worried about.  My white blood count was high.  My rheumatoid numbers were high and my lupus anticoagulant numbers were high.  (No, I have no idea what those mean I just like to sound smart.)  I do know I am probably not dying.  NO, I didn't ask her that!  I'm appalled you would even thing that. Ok, I did.  I came right out and asked her.  Of course I did.  There is still a risk that the clot could break off and go to my lungs but if I keep the compression stockings on and keep taking my coumadin, I should  be okay.

I go back in February for more blood work and then I still see my general physician every 10 days.

But, I am alive.  And Christmas is coming!  And I ordered our Christmas cards!  I will post one on here soon!

Thanks for checking in.

Happenings.....

We have just had a crazy couple of weeks here!

We've been averaging having 2 different evenings a week where we had people over for dinner!  Which I love doing, but I'm quite exhausted now!  And there is more to come.  Our house ~ mainly the living room and kitchen were torn apart for a while, so now that we can entertain, we do!

My former Pastor and his wife came to see us again on Saturday!  I absolutely love when they come!  We have such great fellowship and can just feel comfortable from the moment they get here.  She doesn't care what my house looks like, she just wants to see us!  Makes a girl feel good to hear that.

And then of course, the shopping.  Oh my.  It's time to step away from the computer for a while!  Such great deals right at your fingertips.  And all you have to do is enter your credit card number.  It's lovely really!  I have just had a great cyber Monday!  Now, I am going to go clean so my husband can find it easier to forgive my spending.  Right?  Isn't that how it works?  He SURELY can't be mad at me when  he has a clean house, right??????

What great deals have you found?  {{{Anything I should scurry out to buy?}}}

Thanksgiving

I don't know about you, but it is a tradition in my family to go around the table and say what you are thankful for.
Not a generic answer either.
Be creative.
So a couple of days ago, I got the kids all hyped up and told them to be thinking about it.

And then I started thinking about it too.
What am I really thankful for?
Yes, my husband.
Yep, my kids.
Yep, my home, etc.

I started thinking back of this year and of course, the blood clot came to mind.
There were a lot of scary moments for me since July 3.
Knowing that at any moment, this clot could break loose and I would be gone.
I live with that knowledge daily.
Makes you think about a lot of things.

Well, there was a period in my life after this last hospital stay that I started wondering a couple of things.
Like, I thought about it ALL THE TIME.

One day, I was sitting on the edge of my bed, crying.
Justus came over and sat beside me.
He knows my heart.  He didn't even have to ask.
But I had a question for him that I don't think he expected.
So I figured I better just ask.
I wondered what he would do with Annaleah if I were to die.
Would he keep her?
Would he let one of our family members raise her?
I know, it wouldn't matter to me, but I just HAD to know.
He looked at me, shocked.
He said "she's our daughter, what do you mean?  I would raise her just like I would the others."
And I felt better just knowing that I guess.  She would be with her siblings.  With her Daddy.  There is peace in that.

So, this year, I can honestly say, I am so thankful that I get to be the one to raise my children.  I'm so thankful that I get to remind Chloe to brush her teeth EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  I'm so thankful that I am the one that gets to "rocky-baby" Ty-ty when he is hurt or tired.  I'm so thankful that it's me that Ben comes to and hugs when he needs a hug.  I'm so thankful that I get all of Isaacs funny lil' humor.  I'm so thankful that I get to feed my baby and change her lil' diapers.  So thankful that I get to do my husbands laundry.  Make his dinner.  It's me.  I get to be the one to meet their needs.  Thank you Lord!

Drama Queen in the making.

Do you ever wonder how Drama Queens are formed?

I have found the secret. 

In small rural homes in small towns...

one scream at a time.

This is what she does when she wants attention.

And lately she doesn't care who gives her the attention, so long as someone does.

Ben, Chloe, Isaac, Titus, Mommy, Daddy, 

JUST SOMEONE COME PICK ME UP!

NOW!

My Titus....

He's so quite and thoughtful.

He often is found just walking around outside by himself playing.

He spends alot of time at the table eating dinner.

You can't hurry him.

He likes to enjoy his food even if everyone else is done

and watching a movie.

He sits.

And eats.

Several times a day, he comes up to me and kisses my hand or my side

and says

"I just love you."

That's all.

I just love you. 

He doesn't want anything, he just loves me.

Go Cart Rodeooooo!

We had a Fall contest for the teens at church.

The winners got to come to our house on Sunday after church. 

We had so much fun.

It was a beautiful fall day!

It was supposed to rain and be cold, but it was in the 60's and no rain!

Praise the Lord!

We had three teens come.

Played some big ball!  OH yeah.

 And, of course, rode some go carts while chasing the big ball.

These boys had the best time! 

They had never rode a go cart before.

Isaiah is ornery like my Isaac and Sean...Sean just wanted to talk.

And talk.

And talk.

And talk.  

He was cracking me up!

And then there is this teenager:

I'm just gonna throw this out there and say that he had more fun than all the others combined!

Here's me:

I was telling Yui to "GRAB THAT BALL YOU LIL' RASCAL SO THE BOYS DON'T WIN."

I'm a bit competitive!

Our kids couldn't wait for the teens to come over!

We had just a small bonfire to cook our hot dogs and smores, but Titus was there for the better part of the day.  He loves fires!

And here is me and Annaleah.

My hair is not really that big.
Is it?

Do I always look like that?

God, help me.

My poor children.

No wonder they hate me.

Chloe and Yui.  

She is so good with our kids.

And another shot of the teenagers...oh, I mean Justus (the youth Pastor.) HA.

And here is where the day took a turn for the worse. 

My husband had this crazed look on his face.

I saw it but wasn't sure what to make of it.

I heard him yell to Ben over the roar of the go cart "BEN OPEN THE GATES!"

Of heaven, I wondered?

But no, he just meant our fence gates.

So Ben opened them while we all stood there staring at them in wonderment.

"What could this possibly mean?"

And then here comes the roar!  And Justus and Isaiah covered in mud. 

They decided to visit the backlands....where the mud dwells.

They found it.

All of it.

And then he had to take all the kids to see the mud. 

Wow.  I may still be harboring bitterness.

Good ol' Ty.  He hates mud.  I love him.

Isaac "wait for meeeeee Dad!"

Ben thought it was great that you could put weeds on the fire and make smoke.

My oh my, they are so easily entertained.

And, that was our go cart rodeo.

Good times.

Randomness....

So, I've become one of "those" bloggers who has a baby and then doesn't blog anymore.

But who could blame me? Look at that smile! She is such a little bit of joy for us.  Even her Dad is in love.  Our other children fuss over her and I hear a million times a day "Mommy, is it my turn to make Annaleah smile?"  She's been a very easy baby so far.  Slept through the night at 2 weeks of age.  Never had that happen before!  Of course now, four months later, she is up during the night wanting to eat.  A girl's gotta eat, right?  Her's hungry.  She can't possibly sleep knowing there is food to be had.  And I don't necessarily mind.  I did finally order some cloth diapers.  LOVE THEM!  I had at first thought I would just use them while I was at home, but I use them all the time now.  It is really so easy to use.  They wash up well.  And she looks adorable in her Fuzzibunz!  No idea why I never did this before.  I have a small stock pile of disposable diapers (by small I mean about 6 packages of Huggies) that I am considering taking back to the store.  I really love cloth diapering.  And so does Petunia.


School is in full swing here at the Snow household.  I am still loving the ABeka videos!  They have been a lifesaver!  I do very little with their schooling.  Of course, Isaac is in kindergarten so I do most of that with him.  And I have been doing a bit of preschool too with Titus and the little girl I babysit.  It's always fun....


We have redecorated our downstairs a bit...
This is our kitchen wall.  It's a yellow/gold/orange color.  Ha.  Really pretty though.  I like it much better than the dark red I had before.

 And our living room is a pale green!  It's perfect.  We had a sage green in there before, and I liked it for a while, but it was pretty dark.  We both wanted a lighter, brighter house.  We got it.  It's beautiful!

We are loving our church!  We've made some really great friends.  I've never been to a church quite like ours.  If you are in the hospital, expect to be visited by most of the members.  Expect to be prayed for.  The older men in our church are all leaders.  You will find most of them at the alters during the invitation.  I feel blessed to be there.  Our Pastor and his wife just swooped in and picked us up and loved us.  I will forever be grateful !!!


I joined a gym 2 months ago.  I've been 3 times.  Oh yeah.  I can feel it working.  Bwahahahaha!  Thank God it is only 12 bucks a month! I had to go back to the hospital for three days the week after I joined and am just now starting back at it.  


And so...that wraps up the update for today.  Loving that it is November and high 60's!!!  Maybe I will take the kids to the park today!


Hope you all are doing well!  Would love to hear from you!

Women In The Word Bible Study

I joined up with a group of ladies online to do a Bible study of I John.

Every Wednesday they have a link party discussing what we learned the past week.

So, here is my first WIWW link up:

I John 2:9-11
"He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.  But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes."

WOW!  These are some powerful verses.  My husband has always said that if you hold bitterness or grudges against others, you are letting them control you.  Now, I always believed that was true.  But here are the Bible verses to support it.  If you hate your brother, it says.  You don't even have to be mean to them with your words (it's a heart thing) you will walk in darkness.  You know not which way you go.  Your eyes are blinded.  Just from holding hatred in your heart.

I will have to admit to holding grudges, holding bitterness in my heart against others.  But looking at it now, do I really want it to affect my direction in life?  To interfere with my eye sight?  Nope, I sure don't.

I will definitely be more careful about the things that I hold in my heart.  The things that I let CONTROL me.

Can't get my mind off....

The poor spider we killed this morning.

Ben and Chloe were both sweeping the downstairs when I heard Chloe's
scream.
She's a drama queen.
And she gets her toes all curled up when she sees a spider.
So, there is this tiny little spider ~ one of those skinny ones that just looks like a dust mite???
You know what I am talking about?

Well, anyway, I made her kill one the other day in the bathroom.
Why?
Because she had been going upstairs for days and wasting time because there was a spider in this bathroom.
Again, a dust mite spider.

So, I decided she needed to get over this fear and kill it.
Same thing this morning "Just kill it Chloe."
Well, she was having a hard time obeying..so, I just killed it.
She was obviously beside herself.  Ha.

So Ben says "poor spider is in Heaven now, Chloe, finish sweeping."

To which Chloe replies: "Nu-huh...he's in HELL!"

And now I can't stop thinking about that spider that I didn't even witness too who split hell wide open (said in my best preacher voice) this morning when I killed him.  

It's terribly heartbreaking.

My Isaac.

This kid!  

We take him to the park.

He sees the camera.

And immediately we have this:

I don't know that I could love him anymore than I do right now!

Poop

Tonight I was in the office doing some work on the computer.
Titus and Isaac were in there coloring on the floor.
One of them would say the word "POOP".
They both would roll on the floor laughing.
Then, they'd pull themselves together and begin coloring again....
Only for one of them to say "POOP" again...and on and on and on it went.
I couldn't help smile at them.
And thank God that I have a girl after these two boys.
"Thank you Jesus for that lil' blessing who I am sure, will not laugh at the word "POOP"."
So, about 10 minutes into the POOP fest, Titus gets up and runs to the bathroom crying!
Ben yells from the back foyer "MOM, we have a problem!"
Guess what happened?
Titus pooped all over himself.
Apparently, if you say POOP loud enough and long enough, poop will happen.
Beware.
Listen to your children.
Don't let this happen to you.
My warning to you, because I love you.
You are welcome.

My Benjamin.....

We went out garage sale~ing recently, just me, him and Chloe.
I stopped and got them each a Polar Pop from our nearby gas station.
When we got back in the car, I told them that I hope that when they are older and I am gone, I hope this is one of the things that they remember....going garage sale~ing with Mom.

So, today, we hit a garage sale and he was looking at a box with a bunch of book marks in it.
They were three for a dollar.
He got one for his Dad and one for *himself* or so I thought.  And then Isaac wanted one, so I just put that in with his things.
When we got home, I went to fix lunch and he kept asking me if I was going to check my computer.
I thought this was odd.
About half an hour later, I came to my computer and found a note from Ben...
and a bookmark with a "Polar bear" on it.
The note said:  *Get out your tissues ladies*

"Dear Mom,
Remember when we bought polar pops and we went garage sale~ing?  That was fun.  I'll always remember it even when I am old.  I love you Mommy."

I'm blubbering again.
Help us.
And Benny boo, I will always remember it too.  Love, Mommy.

After her baaath....

Lil' Miss had a relaxing baaath *said in my best English accent* the other morning. 

She was so relaxed after her warm bath...

So I put on her robe and set her on my pillows...

And off she went to laa laa land...

I wub her so much.

Other news of the day..

I'm overwhelmed!

My house has gone to pot!  

Literally.

So much to do and so little time to do it.

But, I will keep plugging along.

And hopefully make a lot of trips to Goodwill.
We have accumulated a lot of junk.

J-U-N-K!

Oh Flylady, where are you?