Well I am FINALLY getting back to the blog. I actually get to write an update. WOW! It seems like it has been forever. We have had a crazy couple of weeks. I must warn you now though...this is going to be one LONG post. Prepare yourself.
We were chugging along just fine; we had our calendar all lined out until the end of the year and set to perfection...UNTIL...Greg's boss decided he wanted to schedule 2 meetings in Louisiana in the span of a month. Needless to say, he threw our schedule for a loop with everything else we had going on. Our November has started off with a bang. Our sweet, little John Reagan, who never overreacts to anything (yea right), got his first black eye halloween eve. He was getting in trouble for hitting Daddy when he decided to lay out in the floor in hysteria and in the process hit his eye on the corner of the coffee table. Thank God it is a round corner.
At least it isn't circling the entire eye! We got away with a light one.
We made it through our first crazy week without any further injury, and the excitement of Pawpaw and Fifi's upcoming visit helped us endure with a little bit of grace. Pawpaw and Fifi arrived on Wednesday the 5th. They were waiting for us when we made it home from church. We had one excited boy on our hands. Needless to say we were prepared for a late night. Halelujah for a somewhat extended stay. It is so nice to get a break because John Reagan constantly follows them around, "Pawpaw, Fifi, Pawpaw, Fifi." That is what we hear for the entire stay with every visit.
Evie didn't mind the company either. She thought it was nice having a new face to talk to.
We couldn't get Pawpaw to stay awake long enough to get a good picture. This is what little boys will do to you.
As you can see, he never lets up on Pawpaw.
We sure did enjoy our visit. That could be because we constantly left at least one child with them while we ran the roads and got things done. One of these things was Mommy's Lunch Out! Evie went on her first lunch date with Caleb and Hannah.
For those of you who don't live here in Tennessee, Meredith and Caleb are sitting by me and Hannah and Kimberly are across the table.
Hannah and Caleb outlasted Evie. She is passed out. Is there a baby in my arms? I can't really tell. John Reagan of course was shopping with Pawpaw and Fifi. Sorry Caleb and Hannah, you come in second to Pawpaw and Fifi. I was happy though because I didn't have to fight with him over the chips. If John Reagan would have been there, the basket of chips would have been in front of him.
Getting back to our company, the reason Pawpaw and Fifi came to visit was because Miss Evie was being dedicated November 9th. Here she is all snug and ready to head out the door for the big event. We love the way our church has baby dedication set up. It is such a great experience.
With John Reagan's baby dedication, we took the camera and ended up not getting any pictures because the church does a DVD that they give each family. So we didn't even take the camera this time. After it was all said and done, we needed it.
Here we are back at home. Daddy couldn't wait for me to get my hands out of the picture, and as you can see, it is rare to capture a picture of Evie that doesn't have at least a small part of John Reagan's body in it.
Evie is such a sweet baby! I want to squeeze her and love all over her just from looking at this picture.
We had to take some time and relax Sunday night after so many fun-filled days of running the roads and wearing our company down. After all, it is hard work entertaining. John Reagan decided he needed to kick back and read the toy catalog. Santa is coming next month, and John Reagan wants to be prepared.
Kids are such great entertainment. Who needs movies?
After our failed attempts to get Pawpaw and Fifi to stay until Tuesday, we said our goodbyes Monday around noon. Surely we would survive until Thursday when we were supposed to be heading to Louisiana for our second round of meetings. We got the house all cleaned up and ready for Mommy's company and sent the boys on their way. It was girls night at the house with some friends. No boys allowed, except Max, and he was going to be watching from the back door. Sorry Bunko Ladies that I don't have any pictures. I sat the camera out and intended on getting some good shots, but that never happened. I got too caught up in the dessert.
The countdown was on until Thursday. I had my Tuesday all planned out...get packed, catch up on the blog, get the house as straight as possible. Then Wednesday I would get all my errands ran. Once again I had my schedule down pat. And you can guess what happened next! Another wirlwind. While I was pregnant with Evie, I had several bouts of what I considered EXTREME indigestion. It started when I was around 4-5 months pregnant, and to me there was nothing else it could be. It would start out just below my rib cage...gas pain. Then it would radiate through my chest and shoulders, making me feel nauseated. No type of gas, indigestion, or pain medicine would even touch it. When I would get sick and throw up, it still wouldn't get better. The pain would go on for as long as 5 hours sometimes. The one time I did call the doctor, I got "the on call" doc who quickly informed me it was gas. The last time I had this problem was when Evie was 2 weeks old. Naturally I thought by now I was all better. Well, think again. The gas pain started about 3:00 Monday afternoon. I took a little medicine and was fine. At midnight it began to escalate to the point that I had had enough, and I was at the ER by 1:15. Greg wanted to wake the children and all of us go, but I told him I was not getting the babies up for them to sit in the ER for what I thought was gas. Yes, well...by 3:30 they were working on getting me admitted into the hospital for gall stones. Yes, that did mean surgery. Of course surgery wasn't until Wednesday. So I got to call Fifi up Tuesday morning after she had been home for a total of 12 hours and tell her that I was in the hospital and having surgery the next day. After she recovered from her state of shock, she hopped on the "hairplane" (as Breyden, my nephew, calls it) Wednesday and got here at 8:15 p.m., a full 48 hours after she got home. I thought I would get to come home on Wednesday too, but the doctor said that my gallbladder was so inflamed that he wanted to keep me overnight and run an extra round of antibiotics in me. Yippy! How exciting. The doc also said he could tell I had been battling this problem for a while and he guessed that is why God made women have babies and not men because he couldn't have endured that long. So ladies, pat yourselves on the back at the fact that a man admitted that...lol!
The good news is that after a day and a half of handling 2 kids on his own, Greg decided he didn't want to be a single parent. So mom has informed me that I now have job security. Nothing like a hospital stay every now and then to line the men out. Remember that ladies...lol! And now is where I have to say thank you to all of our friends for your prayers and support through this craziness that has been our week. We couldn't have made it without all of you. I know some of you say we have been stubborn and haven't asked for enough help, but believe me when I say, even if we didn't call on you, it was a great comfort knowing you are here for us. I pratically begged Greg to call a certain friend on Tuesday to help him with John Reagan, but he didn't want to intrude. We are so blessed to have such GREAT friends. I cannot say thanks enough.
I thought I would finish this LONG, LONG story off with something a little softer on the eyes. We had a little cabin fever today, so we took a short ride. John Reagan knows that in the colder months of the year, Mommy doesn't let him out of the house without a hat on. He grabbed his hat out of the floor today and put it on backwards. It was so cute I couldn't resist a picture or two.
Just to give you an idea of how hectic it has been and how long it has been since I checked the blog, much less wrote on it, I just saw tonight where we had a couple of comments on our blog name. Therefore, I am going to go ahead and add my blog disclaimer in right here...Jon, anytime you see a post on here from Greg, you can rest assured IT IS HOGWASH...lol!
Brandi
This picture was all the way back in September. Mommy was tired and needed a rest. Apparently so did John Reagan. I think this is my only nap since Evie arrived, but of course Daddy was home this day and got a picture of it. My little buddy is so sweet. When he was a baby, he always knew when Greg was home or when he was on the road. The days Greg would go on the road, John Reagan would sleep late and let me rest. When Greg was home, he always got up early with Greg. I shouldn't say with Greg because he would get Greg up. Duchess gets her first cameo on the blog! Now I just have to get Max on here somewhere.
This picture is also from September, the 5
