Enjoying the family....

Rainy Days are great when we are family!

When Tyler arrived I thought two weeks were forever. I find myself thinking of the few we have left before he leaves and then I am sad. That is the negative Cathy but I really should be counting my blessings since he wasn't even suppose to be here yet. When he leave I know it will be a good while before he is home again. We are just trying to spend as much time together as we can while I am trying to understand that he does have a life outside of my home.

I wish I could say I have made many home cooked meals but that would be such a lie. We have eaten together many times but mostly out to restaurants. This past Monday night Tara (who works in Marketing for Jason's Deli) had a viewing of Unwrapped featuring Jason's Deli and one of their famous sandwiches. So each department was ask to show up to be represented. So Tara asked her family to join her and we did. Her department won the Spirit Award for having the most participation for her department. Of course, our entire family counts as many. Just last night my mother cooked rice and gravy with round steak, corn, green beans, salad, rolls, homemade chocolate pie and my sister homemade cherry pie with whip cream. Lets not count the calories but it was such a great time to get together. We have had a few sunny days as of late so we planned on driving to the beach and looking at the progress since Hurricane Ike and eating at our favorite place, Stingray over the water. Sun was a rare sight with mostly drizzle and fog. But it didn't matter to us as we shared good times from our beach trips and just enjoyed being together. The twins had their friend Kayla, Tara had her friend Tanya and Derek had his girlfriend, Linzy. We all ate way too much seafood and then took a ride to look at our addition. It is still heartbreaking to see the destruction from the hurricane.

Annabel didn't make the trip with us to the beach. So many times the focus is all about Annabel and that is wonderful but today I just wanted to be able to relax and enjoy our time together with the older kids. Many times everything is around feeding tubes, cathing(not right now, though, meds, naps etc. Also I am still not getting her out except for school until she is 100%. I would have to say she is almost there. I am aware of a flu/respiratory, virus going around and so we are going to lay low for a bit longer. Her biggest issue now is that even on oxygen she is still going way too low. She seems to be gaining weight and feeling great.

I will close by thanking so many of you for your prayers for our family.