mr. hand

busy, busy, busy

good weekend. full of busy-ness & activity.

1. mom's home! the doctor released her friday, and so she was able to spend this weekend at home, surrounded by family.

2. we had a bridal shower on saturday for my brother's fiance. it was great fun, and laure & jonathan got a lot of good stuff.

3. my brother was home for the weekend. even if i don't see him much when he's around, it's good to have him around.

not ready

she's not ready to come home. i want her here so very badly, but she's really just not ready yet.

"trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." psalms 62:8

fun with produce

i was looking for a good photo to post on here tonight. something fun & light hearted. with mom being the hospital, i could use some good light heartedness. so i couldn't resist this one. it's no fun watching your mom be in the hospital. but i know she's getting better & someday she'll pose with sprouting onion ears again. :)

update & thank you

mom took a couple of short strolls this evening. it's a lot of effort... a lot of effort... but she's doing really well. her oxygen levels are coming up - her reading was high enough even after being without the oxygen for awhile (to take a walk & such) that they turned down her oxygen thing (how'd you like that technical term?) she'll still be there several more days. the doctor wants to be sure and take things slowly and very cautiously. sounds good to me. i believe that the third time can be a charm (i mean, i am the third child), but i think two surgeries is plenty.

thank you for all the prayers. we do very much appreciate them. within the next couple of days i may even start picking up the phone and returning calls & such. bear with me, i'm trying. :)

6th floor, here she comes...

mom made it out of the icu this afternoon. they gave her two units of blood yesterday, and it pulled up her hemoglobin & blood pressure. her fever is down to just about nothing, and she's got a lot more energy. granted, she's still got a 14 inch gash in her belly and so "a lot more energy" still doesn't add up to doing much. but she's making definite progress, and that's a very good thing. tomorrow they're going to try getting her up & walking around a bit. the getting up & down is the hardest part, but it'll get better each time she does it.
 
can you imagine carrying around ten pounds of fluid in your abdomen? ten pounds.

chair in the icu room

just because the chair looks padded & reclines - doesn't mean it's going to be comfortable to sleep in.

photo lunch update

 
so i work with this gal named mary who has a phenomenal garden. and every summer we have a little garden party at lunch. it's a good time & i love her koi pond. lots more photos on the "photo lunch" page.
 
mom's still in icu. they're working on getting her blood pressure up & her temperature down. so probably tomorrow she'll be moved to a normal room.

*sigh*

mom's back in the hospital. staying in icu tonight, should be in a normal room tomorrow. surgery took about 3 hours - that's shorter than the first time.
 
hospitals aren't really much fun at all.

keep blogging, melissa!

i said...
and later you shall hear my theory on why melissa should continue her xanga site - whether she knows anyone's reading it or not.
Posted 7/14/2004 at 9:32 AM by BlueHighlights

melissa said...
how did you know I had a xanga and whats your theory?
melissa | Email | Homepage | 07.14.04 - 5:37 pm |

the survey says...
i'm an online poker. i go to one website and follow links until i find something else, where i follow links until i find something else. in this case, i started at the xanga site of 'lizbeth and simply followed her links to your xanga site. (after poking around on your site i also visited rj's xanga site... but that has nothing to do with this story) so that answers question #1.

now onto my theory as to why melissa should keep her xanga site - whether she knows anyone is reading it or not...

first off, i'm a big fan of writing. i'm much better at writing (or typing) things out than talking about them. blogging helps me sort things out. however, there's a more important reason.

you can keep a xanga site, or a blog site, or whatever and fill the space with your daily activities & whereabouts. you can fill it with blah blah blahs and yada yada yadas. nothing wrong with that. people like to know what other people are doing. however, when you keep a site filled with the goodness of God and amazement at His grace and blessings - you do so much more than simply blog. anyone who DOES read it can't possibly help but be face to face with the living God and your testimony to His work in your life. and your blog is full of God's goodness. reading through parts of it encouraged me when i found it. i'm sure it does the same for others, too. whether they tell you or not. :)

foil update

jeff loved his desk. it took us two hours to foil the desk, and it took us 2 hours to un-foil the desk. yes, we un-foiled... april & i both helped him. i mean, hey - if he's not doing any work for two hours, why should i? :)

the entire desk reduced down to a 2 pound aluminum ball, which now sits on jeff's desk for people to play with and admire.

courage

courage doesn't always roar.
sometimes courage is
the quiet voice at
the end of the day saying,
"i will try again
tomorrow."

thought for the day

if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've got.

drat! foiled again...

so i work with this guy named jeff. good chap to work with. has a fine sense of humor.

and one day, we're sitting around the office & jeff mentions that we should pull more pranks on people at work. now, i'm pretty sure he meant "we" as in he would be part of pulling the prank on someone else. but you can't just say something like that and then go on vacation for a week.

right?

so jeff went fishing for a week, and he came back to this.

"becky"

i have a little cousin named alyssa. she's 18 months old and, of course, cute as a button. (it runs in the family.) unfortunately, alyssa lives like 12 hours away, and so i've only actually seen her about 6 times. however, it just tickles me to death that she's totally hooked on my name. if she sees a picture of me - "becky". her mom mentions me on the phone - "becky". over & over again. it's absolutely fantastic. i don't know if "becky" is fun to say or what. but i love it.

july, already?

wow. i think i managed three posts in june. i practically missed paying my web hosting bill. i don't remember the month of may & i'm pretty sure june didn't really exist. but this weekend is the 4th of july? who ordered that so early? summer's just flying by.

for those of you who are interested, or bored :), take a look at my photos from new york city. it's the very abbreviated version. i took over 350 photos. i pared it down to about 220 that i really like. and the version you're seeing is about 66. abbreviated. :)

and for those of you who just can't wait to click the link & load the thumbnails... here's a view from the empire state building: