Our house

After some debate, we put our house up for sale this week and entered into a contingency contract on another house. As excited as I am about the thought of something a wee bit larger and starting anew, I have a hard time imaging not living at 706 Delaware. I fell in absolute love with this house the first day I saw it and the love affair has continued. It is chalk full of such memories. Five years ago, Jason, Lily (the dog) and myself moved in and began our new little life in Shreveport. Wow, what a difference a few years can make! We have brought three newborns through the front door and watched three babies learn to crawl and walk on these old hardwood floors. There has been joyous laughter and lots of tears, happy and sad.
Of course, I'm talking like we are moving tomorrow! We need a wonderful person to fall in love with the house's charm and buy it so we can move on! If you know anyone looking for a great home, on a great street, with great neighbors, send them our way!

Sally eats peas, hats, & cowboys

Wow, what a Saturday! Jason graciously allowed me to go for a good run this morning then head up to the office and catch up on some work after taking a day off last week. I was able to get about 4 hours of work done in 3 hours with no distraction and complete silence...it was great. I could have stayed all day and still not have gotten ahead, but oh well! By the time I got home, the trio was sleeping (Haley didn't sleep but had quiet time in our bed). I picked up the back yard and Jason went on his run. By the time he got home, everyone was up...mommy's turn! Jason headed out to run some errands and we attempted to play outside. Gracie apparently had a great morning but she was pretty crabby in the afternoon and she ended up watching tv in our bed while Haley, Sam and I took a ride in the Barbie jeep and had a picnic. Due to Haley's extreme exhaustion, she was a little firecracker! She found some hats that Dear got for her and Gracie in Peru and decided to model one for herself and one for puppy...quite entertaining! She then decided that I needed to wear one, a la the photo above! When we ate dinner, she thought Baby Sally should eat some peas. Now, she wouldn't eat any herself but she proceeded to cram green peas in a plastic baby doll mouth. It was humorous but touching at the same time; her maternal side has really blossomed the past few months as she has tended to Sally. She is a very thoughtful, caring little girl. That actually reminds me of her and Sam's exchange this morning over breakfast:

Sam "I want more bar" (ie, a breakfast bar)

me "Haley, can Sam have yours since you are eating it?"

Haley "Yes, here Sam"

Sam "Thank you"

Haley "Your welcome"

Brought a smile to my face!

So, right before bed, Haley grabbed my houseshoes and said that with the shoes and her hat, she was a cowboy! I don't know how Vera Wang houseshoes made her think she was a cowboy, but it was an entertaining way to end the day!

We're going to attempt Sunday School and church with Gracie tomorrow. She has not been out of pajamas since last Sunday, but its time to get back to a semi routine; hopefully she'll have fun playing with Stokes and Anna Grace!

healing

After a few rotten days, Gracie is finally on the mend. She is beginning to eat and drink a bit more. That along with a few smiles and attempts at speaking makes us hopeful that we are moving in the right direction. She is already breathing much quieter at night; in fact I had a quick scare thinking something must be wrong with her the other morning because she was sleeping so soundly without snoring at all!! We go back Monday for a follow appointment with Dr. Hollier. But, all in all, things are a wee bit calmer around the Greer household. Thank you again for all of the prayers as we are so blessed to have such strong support from our brothers and sisters in Christ!

update on Gracie

Our little patient had a challenging night! She went to sleep pretty easily with Haley at 6:30 but both girls were up and in our bed by 11:00 pm. I was able to get Haley back to sleep in there bed, but Gracie stayed with us and me, Jason and Gracie had a very restless night. She didn't drink anything all day therefore she had an empty stomach and couldn't take her pain medication. She was in a great deal of pain and would sleep for 30 minutes to an hour then wake up crying for an equal amount of time. She would spit out her antibiotics and would barely tolerate the Tylenol. Finally about 5:00 am she took two sips of 7-up and that was it. I was greatly concerned about her dehydrating due to lack of fluids and contracting an infection since she would take her medicine. We talked to Dr. Hollier and had my mom, who is keeping her this week, give her small dropfuls of liquids and meds throughout the day and she how she would handle that. Mom gave her some water and some antibiotics through the dropper while she took a nap...small victory! By lunch, mom called to tell me she was eating several spoonfuls of mac and cheese along with sipping on some milk. She also got a full dose of Tylenol and a warm bath, which she was totally opposed to taking! So, even with small amounts of fluids in her body and small attempts as speaking, I'm hoping that we'll all get a little more rest tonight and she'll continue to improve.
Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers. Again, she can't see it right now, but this really was the best thing we could do for her and I hope she has no memories of the pain!

Gracie's surgery

Gracie had her tonsils and adenoids removed this morning. Dr. Hollier was a little stunned at the size of her adenoids. He said she must have been experiencing a great deal of sleep apnea but we're hopeful that her breathing and sleeping (and maybe hearing/speech!) will be much improved after the procedure. She is obviously in a great deal of pain but sleeping off a bit of the Demerol. She was quite agitated that they wrapped up her hand to keep her iv in place as it covered her left and and her sucking thumb. Once that was removed she felt a little better but she wakes up every now and again wincing in pain. I wasn't too worried about the actual surgery but it is quite difficult to watch your child hurting and there is not much me or Jason can do about it. Lots of hugs and liquids will be in order the next few days as she heals!

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers...as we know, the power of prayer is unbelievable.

It was pretty funny before the surgery because they gave her some medicine to relax her and it made her all kinds of giddy and a big unbalanced, basically drunk! She would get the biggest grin on her face then tumble to the side as we all laughed. The pictures of her laughing are from pre surgery, certainly not post!

Circus, circus

Happy Birthday to our friends Sanders and Hannah! We had a great time yesterday afternoon at their circus themed birthday party equipped with a popcorn machine, a cotton candy machine, a big top and even a clown. I was a bit worried about how the trio would react to Cece, but believe it or not, they took to her much better than some other kids. Haley and Gracie were very curious about her red nose and wanted to touch it over and over. We left with three fabulous balloon dogs, bellies full of cotton candy and hot dogs and the memories of our first encounter with a clown!

Run On

Around Christmas time, the theme of joy kept popping into small facets of my life from a Sunday sermon, to a daily devotional and a Sunday school lesson. I found it interesting at the time and quite timely as the birthday of our Savior approached. Well, recently, another theme has been presenting itself in the same manner and that is training to run a race, spiritually and physically. The Chaneys got us encouraged to run in the Little Rock Marathon on March 15th as a team. As such, we'll each run a leg ranging from around 5 miles to 8 miles. I printed off the training schedule from the website and trying to achieve the daily goals. As much as I would like to think I can go out there that morning and run my 6.9 mile leg with no problems, I know that it will take alot of energy, effort, and training. Reinforcing that thought, I received a devotional (see link) regarding the same matter.
http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/2009/01/running-prepared.html
I could continue to attempt to draw the connection between training for race with that of our daily lives and running for the Lord, I direct your attention to Candace's blog who perfectly sums up everything I would want to say, but can't. So read, enjoy and be in prayer for Team Graney as we race the hilly landscape of Little Rock early on that March morning.
http://www.chaneylife.blogspot.com/

wild, wild & wild

Are the stars misaligned or is the earth's rotation off because my children have been absolute maniacs all weekend! It doesn't help that the girls have to be split up at nap time because they play instead of sleep. Gracie is fine in their bed but Haley goes to our bed where she ends up watching tv instead of sleeping. And when she is exhausted in the early evening she is a little tasmanian devil running circles around the place. Wow, I'm pooped and ready to snuggle up in my big, warm bed.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas holiday in the Greer family! We spent lots of fun time with family and enjoyed having Aunt Rebekah & Uncle Dave home from cold Colorado! Santa visited the trio at our house, where the favorite gift was play dough, then he stopped off at Tootsie and Pop's house for more goodies (I must have been a good girl too because he left me stocking full of goodies!). After their house we went over to Dear & Sambo's house where the festivities continued and culminated with the most exciting gift - a red mustang from the Flournoys! As I predicted, there were some arguments since it is only a 2 seater and there are 3 of them but nothing too major. We then headed back home for a brief nap and back to Dear & Sambo's to eat late dinner/early lunch. I was glad to have the next day off of work for some recovery time.

It was good to get back to a somewhat normal schedule on Monday but we all had another day off yesterday to celebrate 2009. For new year's eve we had an early dinner at Johnny's as we are a family of 5 that looooves pizza!! Kids were in bed at the normal 7:00 and I don't think Jason and I made it until 10:30; however, I was definitely awoken at midnight when all of the fireworks were exploding around me.

I'm not one to really make new year's resolutions but I do have several goals that I will be working towards including an fun team marathon in March that Team Graney (the Greers and the Chaneys) will be participating in and I am on track to finish my CPCU designation in June. So, I'll just keep my time management, organization, and patience in check and tweak as needed throughout the year!

2009 will start off with a good, necessary, yet mildly frightening event. Gracie is set to have her tonsils and adenoids removed on January 12th. Her tonsils are 3 times the normal size and she is a heavy, heavy (I say it again!) snorer! So, say a little prayer for her and for her parents as this will be the first time she has been under anesthesia since her final eye surgery while still in the NICU.