Leap Day

Grammy was unexpectedly flown to Jefferson hospital on Monday night while Dan visited with her in the Lancaster hospital. The doctors at Jefferson did their own CT scan that night, and did the coil surgery yesterday morning. Clearly, this is the place where she should be with the best doctors and medical personnel. Uncle Nate has a friend that works there that is as nice as they come, and has offered to keep Dan posted with information on his mom for him. So far, the coil surgery went as well as could be expected and now they will wait to do the permanent brain tube at some point this week.

We are hoping and praying for the best. Girlies have been diligently praying to God every night, and they have really broken my heart with the sweet things that they say. They are good girls. I really hope for them that their Grammy somehow comes out of this all as the person they remember her to be.

We went to Lancaster this past weekend to walk Chloe. Maddie and Faith feel helpful when they can take Chloe out for a long walk around the lake. Chloe is Grammy's beloved dog, and the lake is Grammy's haven. It feels nice to walk that same path. And, Dan stays with Abrie to help with laundry and dishes with his dad. Their local restaurant had a benefit for them that day as well, and they raised over $7,000. I was blown away with the prizes that people that knew Dan's mom had pitched in for the raffle. It was very overwhelming to see how many people clearly love her and wish her well.

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We set out today for our trip to Disney. Girlfriends know there is a surprise for Leap Day, but they think we are going to Baltimore (Abrie thinks we are going to "Chocoley World!"). It's crazy how we haven't really thought about our trip at all in the past 2 weeks with everything that's been going on, even though this is what we'd been looking forward to for the past several months. There's excitement that's slowly finding its way back into both Dan and myself, and we really are most excited to see their faces again.

Just a few more hours until we're off to our happiest place in the world..

Grammy, and Leap Day plans

Grammy is still in the hospital, and we're just trying to get by day-to-day. This has been hell for Dan, and I really feel for him. If it isn't enough to have his mom in the hospital in critical condition, he also has now been thrust into a role of caring for his dad (extremely diabetic- who never took care of his diabetes, and has now paid the price in recent years with 2 legs amputated, kidney transplant- and, on top of all of that, is now recovering from throat cancer).

The doctors at Lancaster General are trying to keep her stable enough to get her down to Thomas Jefferson hospital in Philly for a state-of-the-art brain aneurysm treatment called the coil procedure. It's just a matter of getting her down there safely. She's already had a stroke and a re-bleed since being hospitalized with the initial aneurysm. Tracheotomy was yesterday, and she was given a feeding tube today through her stomach.

Dan's been back and forth to Lancaster almost daily. Maddie specifically asked to go on Sunday so that she could feel like she was "helping" by at least taking Grammy's beloved dog, Chloe, for a walk on their back trail. I think she felt a lot better knowing that she had helped. We'll probably continue to do that on Sundays until (hopefully) Grammy can come home.

I am hoping and praying she gets out of this nightmare as the Grammy we know and love.

*****

Leap Day plans have been in place since early October, and we're holding our breath to see what happens before setting out next week. I'm so thankful that we still haven't told our girlfriends about Disney, just in case it doesn't work.

February thus far

Grammy (Dan's mom) suffered a brain aneurysm last Wednesday night. It's been a hard week.

Dan and I went together today to visit in the hospital, and we arrived at the height of her worst day there yet. Needless to say, we were very taken aback and upset. I forced myself to keep it together, but had to leave the room for a little bit. Maddie had entrusted me with taking a small jewelry box with "happy charms" (some beads that she put in there so that Grammy would feel loved) to her Grammy, and I made sure that I delivered on that promise.

It's been very hard on Dan. He's kicking himself and blaming himself for not calling enough, and not helping with his dad as much. None of it is Dan's fault, and I tell him that; but, of course he's feeling the guilt and helplessness that is this situation. Dan's not sleeping, and neither am I. I couldn't believe that last night I even forgot (completely forgot!) to draw the picture that the tooth fairy always leaves for her, along with the dollar bill tucked inside. We're struggling to keep things going here and trying to manage the visits that are needed in Lancaster. 45 minutes to Lancaster, and 45 minutes to Dan's work.

Maddie has been especially worried and sad about it all. She asks every single day when she can go see Grammy, and works every day on making new pictures to send to her. I'm praying that her Grammy makes it out of this, and as the person that we remember.

January in its succinct version

January has come and gone, and I can't get over how quickly it passed.

January will always be to me the month of my big girl's birthday. My Crannie is now a 7-year-old. A SEVEN year old. 7 sounds crazy to me. Of course, I do realize that I say this about every age.

Maddie had been wanting a "mustang" birthday party, as she just loves horses. She decided at the end of December that she wanted a Jessie the cowgirl birthday party (much to a certain sister's delight and envy... Faith now wants a Jessie party next year!), and so she had herself a Jessie party. On her actual birthday her sole request was "brownies, and that we are all together." My sweet girl.

January also kept us busy with our daily routine:

Dan and I had been wanting to get the girlies to the zoo for awhile now. We used to take Maddie and Faith to the Philly zoo in the winters when they offered the "pay the weather" admission, but they don't seem to offer that anymore. We were excited though when we saw that Zoo America was having free admission on a weekend that we had promised the girlies a trip to Chocolate World in Hershey anyway. So, we made a day of it and visited the zoo before heading over to Chocolate World. It had snowed the day before, and so the animals were just loving the weather and were much more active than usual. I loved that part. And, our girlfriends loved seeing the animals fooling around too;) We also got to see a barn owl up close and personal when a zoo official brought him over to us. That was pretty cool.

And, of course we just love Chocolate World. We rode the ride 3 times, and Abrie, Faith, and I rode it a 4th time while Dan and Maddie went to get a slushie. Abrie and Faith probably would have gotten back on another 10 more times. They call it the "Its a Small World ride of Pennsylvania!" Girlies did the free Factory experience too, and loved it.

We've been using our library pass for the historical society a lot this month too. We went together one day last week, and then Dan took them on a Saturday that I had to work. They just love the children's area at the historical society:

This past weekend we visited with beloved cousins to celebrate Uncle Nate's 32nd birthday. We had a blast! Girlies thought it was the coolest thing to see Uncle Nate having a birthday party because they always ask why we don't have birthday parties. Faith is always talking about how she wants to throw us parties;) We went for a hike at the bird sanctuary, which is a favorite place of ours to go, and Aunt Lisi and Uncle Nate organized a fun scavenger hunt for clues to get to the pirate pinata.

We've had some wonderful weather this week too, and it was a perfect way to close out January.