Busy weekend!

This is the blanket my mom made for my bithday and we were trying to keep Daisy away from it, but she found it anyway. That is a comfy cat! These are some of the balloons J sent to me at work on Friday.

This is my nephew with the new bargain bib I found that says "I love my aunt" He loved the lights at Ch. Cheese for Dev's birthday party.

The is the reaction we were going for. It made all the searching for this tractor worth it. It is his first John Deere tractor. What a great 5th birthday. They are so much fun at this age!

First of all, let me say that as I headed out the door on Friday morning I said a prayer asking St. Therese to send me a flower as a message of love today. Thank goodness I started the day with prayer bc the day proved to be full!

Well, Friday was a day of mixed emotions. I had got a terrible call from my mom telling me some bad news about her health. I was just really stressed about the call because she was crying and having a hard time explaining what the doctor/nurses told her. She has finished her chemo and is now ready to begin the radiation but was getting really mean comments from the local doctor she was referred to to oversee the radiaiton treatment. She is overweight and really swollen from a lot of swelling and the meds she has been on for depression and cancer treatments have made it very difficult to control her weight. The doctor locally told her she needed to lose 40 lbs in 3 weeks or lose both breasts. This terrifed her because it is not possible and she just went through months of chemo and surgery and was thinking she was getting closer to getting out of the belly of the whale and was slapped in the face with yet another challenge. She is going to see her surgeon in Shreveport and the oncologist this week so we will see what they recommend. The first doctor she saw in the beginning of this journey also told her she would need to remove her breast to remove the cancer and the doctors in Shreveport were able to provide other options, so that is what we are praying for in this circumstance.

After this call, I received a beautiful ballooon bouquet with a mug full of sweets from my husband. That really brighten my day! J used to send me flowers all the time when we were dating and when we were first married but I would bring them home and get sick from all the pollen. After this happening a few times, he stopped sending me flowers bc he got tired of me getting an allergy reaction. I would have rather been sick and have fresh flowers but he still limited the fresh flowers. I plant flowers outside, so thank goodness I have flowers in my life still. Well, anyway, when the balloons arrived I was so happy that he suprised me and got creative in finding an alternative to the flowers. But I was a little disappointed because I said my prayer to St. Therese that morning. I was thinking that she still found a way to send me a message of love through the balloons and cup full of candy.

Throughout the afternoon, I kept calling my Mom to see how she was handling her emotions and she was steadily improving. I shared what was going on with the priest I work with and he told me to finish up my stuff and head out to go see my mom. I laughingly told him "You know, I am not supposed to be STRESSED right now. I will never get pregnant like this!" He the told me "Well go see your mom, love her, and then go home be happy and get pregnant." Well, I hope I can say that I followed his instructions! I went to go see my mom and stopped at a flower store on the way to her home. I just wanted to get her some pink carnations bc when I was born my gma sent my mom a dozen pick carnations and they are my Mom's favorite flower. I go into this flower shop that I have never been to and walked in and there are no fresh flowers in the coolers. My face just fell. There were two ladies working on bouquets and then there was an elderly lady at the counter. I asked her if they had any carnations. She asked what I wanted and I just simply said I wanted something simple to bring to my Mom. She went into the cooler in the back of the shop and brought out a rainbow of carnations. I chose two baby pink ones and two hot pink ones. She then proceeded to take her time in preparing the flowers for me and wrapped them in beautiful ribbon and paper. She brought them to me and they looked so beautiful. She made the simple choice of flowers look like a magnificent bouquet!!! I was so suprised, I did not hear what she was telling me to pay. I pushed my check card toward her and she waver her hand and said "no, go see your momma" I was blown away. All I could say was "God Bless you". She just turned around and said "I love you" Now, I really felt that those words came straight from the St. Therese reminding me of God's great love for me. I am still so amazed. One of my friends said, "St. Therese is always blessing you" I thought that even though the flowers were not for me to keep, the image of the flowers were what I really wanted. I then realized that it was the first time I prayed to receive a gift of a flower as a sign of prayers answered and God used me to give them away! I felt so privelaged. She was so suprised and it made her day! God is SOO good.

After the visit with my mom, I made the long trek home and then my husband took me to eat and we hunted for the perfect gift for our nephew's 5th birthday. All he wanted was a tractor. Well we found one and his reaction to it was priceless! It was the first gift he opened and he fired up! His birthday was at Ch Cheese on a Sat. evening. Need I say more? I hope our kids are happy with a simple party. That place was nuts.

We also went to see Mall Cop and it was very funny and my husband brought me to eat some seafood after that party bc we did not eat at the party. Today, J bbq for us and we had his parents over to join us for lunch. W also went to the early mass. We were able to take a short nap before our follow me group. We are learning so much. I am going to share a few pics from the weekend. In cycle news, I think I finally had a peak day on day 21 (Friday). Late, but I am just wondering if this is a reaction to all the new meds I am taking. We will see what happens. I just hope that my o was not delayed bc of the extra stress that day. Only time will tell.

I am off of work tomorrow. I plan to write an appeal to my insurance company since my secondary is not wanting to pay for anything done last year. Wish me luck. My primary and secondary is the same, but different policies. It has made things difficult to say the least.
I am now 32! When my friend asked me at lunch on Sat. if I was happy about this, I literally started tearing up bc I am not where I was planning to be at 32. I tell you I have been SO freakin emotional. After that was out of the way we had the best time visiting. I think it is so amazing that we have been able to remain so close over the years. We were close in college. The and we were in each other's weddings and she was the first one beside my Mom to know that J and I miscarried our first child. Even then she was so understanding. Well, two years later, she announced she was pregant unexpectedly and the timing of her pregnancy was the same as mine and we had similiar due dates only two years apart. I was still grieving so much, I stayed away from her for a while and by the time her shower came around I went, but cried so much before and after and almost during it. I loved her and and her baby, but I was so overcome with my own grief I could not be transparent to her during this time in her life. I did go to the hospital when she gave birth to her first child and I quietly left the room and literlly took such a long walk I ran and hid at the nearby doctor's offices and cried til I could cry no more. Grief does some funny things to you and she never blamed me or judged me for what I was going through. Once, I got through this it was easier to see the beauty of life. She has since had two more suprise pregnancies very close together and really struggled to be a great mom. I was telling her that my miscarriage and fertility concerns is my cross and hers was not being able to plan her pregnancies. She is thankful for her three little ones. But she reminded me yesterday that she cried everyday she was pregnant with her last one bc she was so afraid of having two children so close together. I told her that I admired that she surrendered her will to God's will and did not fight it! I wish I could have done the same with my fertility concerns. It just took me alot longer to find my peace with believing that God is in charge of my family and he will lead me to healing one day. We were unable to visit with my other friend becase her youngest got rsv. We are continuing to pray for his complete recovery. He is also our godchild and we worry so much.

This post is nutty and way too long. I feel like it is all over the place. Now I will try go and see what is happening in your lives :) If there are tons of typos here, just forgive me. I am watching the game and blogging at the same time. This is actually the first superbowl I have ever seen. I have never seen a half-time show until tonight! Funny, huh? How does one in America not see the superbowl in 32 years???

By the way, I don't know how to put the pics at the end of a post! Any instructions are welcome. That is why they are all listed before the post!