Keegan Update

I've asked many of you to pray for Keegan, a kindergarten friend from school. Just wanted to give you a quick update of their rollercoaster this week. And thank you for praying!

He had surgery on Tuesday to have a brain tumor removed. As soon as they started the first drill, spinal fluid started to leak. They stopped the surgery immediately, took fatty tissue from his stomach and plugged the hole. They were frustrated that they had waited for this surgery, then they couldn't do it and now they were concerned that this little guy might get meningitis. It was a devastating result for the family.

The following day they did an MRI to see what they were looking at and it turns out the spinal fluid was leaking from the tumor, not the dura (the lining of the brain). There is an extremely rare tumor that is filled with spinal fluid and, apparently, that is they type he had. The MRI showed the tumor was completely drained, which is what they had hoped to accomplish with the surgery and then they were going to pull out the deflated sack. They didn't get the sack out, but they were so elated the pressure the tumor was causing was relieved.

Praise the Lord!

Unfortunately, Keegan's pituitary gland has been ruined by the tumor and he will have to take all sorts of hormones for the rest of his life. Even one type that has to be so exact that he will have to wake up in the middle of the night to take it, the rest of his life. *praying for a miracle that his pituitary gland would start working again*

He goes back in 3 weeks to have another MRI to see if the sack is refilling (since they weren't able to get it out), but for now everyone is so happy with the miracle that seemed to be a disaster, but was exactly what he needed.

Our God, is indeed, an Awesome God!

Coupons!

Ok, so I'm trying to get better at this coupon game - yes, it absolutely is game on! I've been saving some money (meaning not spending our usually weekly grocery allowance) and our cupboards are much better stocked than normal. My hope is (and I'm told this is true) that once I get past the first two months of this, our grocery bill will drop drastically and our cupboards will be stocked. I think that if we hit a week that Jason didn't have work (which we will), we definitely could make a weeks full of meals on what we have, only having to shop for milk, bread, and fruit.

Saturday I got $120 groceries at Publix for $51. That was even with buying a few things that weren't on sale because I refused to run to Wal-Mart for three items.

I also went to CVS and bought some medicines/toiletries that I didn't necessarily need yet, but would probably just run out and pay full price for when I needed them. I got $85 worth of items and only spent $29 (which included a big box of diapers for $8).

This is fun! I can do this!

Warm Up to a Good Book Day!

Every February, the school has a 'Warm Up to a Good Book Day'. The kids are encouraged to bring in their favorite blanket, favorite pillow and a stuffed animal. They are also allowed to wear what my kids would call 'relaxin' clothes'. All day at school they read books! It is a great day for the kids just to enjoy stories all day. They love it!

Of course, I only have pictures from Daegan's class, because his teacher is so good to send out photos:

Good books read by all!!

Papa's Birthday

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, P A P A ! ! !

(or, as all the other grandkids call him, Grandpa - not sure why my kids adopted a different name?)

We made a card for him with my favorite photos of Papa with the kids. Here's a preview:

With Mollee on Easter SundayWith Tavis, both in Scottish tamsTaking a nap with DaeganWith Capps, frog close in handWith Mac, at Papa's 60th birthday partyAnd me with my Dad, I think 1985?Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

Praying for Keegan

Pray for our friend Keegan this morning. He is having surgery this morning to have a brain tumor removed. He is 6! Pray for safety during surgery and that they can get the entire tumor, otherwise, it will grow back!

Here is his story!

**Update: his surgery didn't go well. When drilling they hit his dura causing the brain fluid to leak. They quickly had to get fat from his abdomen to plug the hole and now they are praying he doesn't get meningitis and trying to decide about when to try surgery again. **

Mollee/Molly/Maili

Jason and I put a lot of heart into our children's names (believe it or not?). Of course, the boys have unique names (Tavis, Daegan, Capps and Haynes) and you may wonder where Mollee fits in. To start this explanation I must say we were looking for Scottish names for everyone - for example, Jason's middle name is Thomas and Tavis is the Scottish form of Thomas. All the kids also have a Scottish clan for their middle name. We found an old Scottish spelling of the name Molly and we loved it: Maili. This was the one! We then experienced other people's opinions of this spelling and how it would never be pronounced right, blah, blah, blah..

and we hesitated.

Jason's story would be that it was me that backed down and wanted to pick a more normal spelling (I don't feel like it was me). At that point, she was already Mollee to us in utero, no matter how we decided to spell it. Then she was born and we chose the 'ee' ending.

Now she is 3rd grade and learning cursive. I started to notice that her papers were coming home with the 'y' ending instead. What? When I questioned her about it, it turns out it is more fun to write a 'y' in cursive rather than an 'ee'.

Seriously? After all that! :)

Quotes Mommy overheard during Winter Break!

This was a fun entry that I started in my head a few days ago. When I tell a story about something one of my kids said or did I am always told, you should write that down or you won't remember it. I heard two different things that really made me laugh, but it only took 24 hours and I had already forgotten them, but here are a few other gems:


"You have to have determination and skill, like me!" (Daegan telling Capps why/how he is so good at building Legos)

"I forgot to tell you, I couldn't find any clean underwear!" (Capps confessing while getting into the shower that he hadn't had underwear on all day)

"Want to play 'Zoo at the White House'?" interesting? (Mollee wanting everyone to act like animals - of course, the White House has their own zoo, right?

"I dream about not being in the Olympics" (Tavis' reaction to the stress of the games when Mommy was explaining how people dream about being in the Olympics all their lives - of course, this coming from the 8-year old that gets migraines because of stress)

and

Mac not speaking, but dancing at my feet - that is all he does to tell me he has to go to the bathroom.

Today he went all day with 'big boy' underwear on and didn't have one accident.