...my daddy...

Daddy and I circa 1977

So Monday morning at 7:45am, while I was enjoying my much needed "sleeping in time" before having to fly to Maine in the afternoon, I was awakened by a phone call from my baby brother.  After another phone call from my mother, I realized I was half asleep and didn't catch the "Dad just had a major heart attack and we're not sure if he's going to make it through the night" statement that Jason said.  By 8:10am, I had showered quickly, grabbed two t-shirts, my toiletries and my phone charger and was on my way sobbing as I drove to Gainesville. 

I don't think anyone ever wants to get that kind of a call.  It was heart breaking and very difficult.  He made it through the first 24 hours, the ones that the doctors told us on Friday they were "surprised to see him live through", and I can't imagine that it has anything to do with just pure luck but by all the gracious friends and family that were very concerned and praying for him.  God is a gracious one!  He pulled my father through something the doctors didn't expect! 

It has been an extremely long week.  Many hours were spent inside that hospital, every day, but this afternoon, on the Cardiac ICU floor.  Let me tell you, the CICU floor has the BEST nurses up there, they made my father smile and laugh and he listened to them! I should probably repeat that part...HE LISTENED TO THEM!  He heard from friends he had known through AGH who had sleep apnea and a nurse who had a bypass surgery previously.  They gave him advice and after sitting in a bed for 6 days straight, a lot of the information has started to sink in.  Even when I kept telling him to uncross his legs (not good for circulation for him) he would immediately uncross them. 

I'm still emotionally spent and physically exhausted.  I know until I see him come out on the other side of that bypass surgery that when he does go in, I'll be nervous again.  I mean who wouldn't be!!?? 

I'm thankful for all of the prayers, the great doctors,especially Dr. Gupta, and the amazing nurses and of course God. Without these, he would not be with us today.

It will be extremely difficult to not see any family tomorrow as Easter comes, and especially not to see my father as he'll spend it in the hospital.  But he is alive, and I am grateful for that!

Please continue to pray for him, pray for a softening of his heart as the weeks go on as he will not have much more to do but to cook a little dinner and really listen to what God would tell him.  I love him so and hope he opens his heart to hear more!

...three nails...

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I was putting together my new desk. It consisted of an L desk along with a hutch.  I'm in love with it (as much as I can be considering I really wanted the $800 Pottery Barn one), and it works great. After nearly 3 day's of putting it together with "no drills" as instructed (because you may drill too far, or break the particle board from the pressure) that the palms of my hands were in terrible pain!

Now I've been a Christian since I was 9 and a half years old (that's what I told my preacher when I went forward that morning), so I've always known that Easter was about Christ, and what He did for us.  So sometimes I'm desensitized to what a HUGE thing this was. I mean yes, we can all say, this man DIED for us!!??  But sometimes it really comes to light in the most unusual way's.  Well, as I was driving a few days after putting my desk together, I noticed how painful it was to grip anything because of using a hand held screwdriver.  And then it hit me...

This pain is not NEARLY the pain that Jesus felt as his hands were NAILED to that cross!  It brought me to tears to think, if I'm in this much pain, just from putting together a couple of pieces of furniture, I can't even begin to imagine Jesus' pain.  It really put into perspective what He gave for me!  Little ole, sinful me!  How awesome is that. 

It's been a couple of weeks now and still, I remember that pain, and then in turn, think of the pain multiplied a million fold as Jesus hung there until He stated to His Father "It is finished."!

Remember that when we celebrate Easter, it's so much more than candy and bunnies, it's Salvation!!  If you want Salvation and don't know how, please ask me, I can definitly tell you!  It's the easiest, and best, free gift avaliable!

...plastic to go cup's with a twist...

So the new fad are those cute little plastic to go cups.  They're great and even include a hard plastic straw!  I've been wanting one for awhile, but I just wasn't feeling the ones with your inital on them, because you're so limited with the exact font that they use; and what if I don't want a font on there? Well I'm pretty much out of luck...

Not so fast!  My tax refund present to myself was a Silhouette!  I've been wanting one for over a year, and if I've waited that long, I should be allowed to purchase it, especially since it was with a small part of my tax refund money. 

I've been eyeing the cute, under $5, to go cup's at Wal-Mart lately.  They have some polka dotted ones (you'd think I'd want that one, but no) and then plain colors.  One of my favorite color combinations is green and brown.  So I was in luck when I went recently and noticed they only had green one's left! I quickly scooped it up, headed to JoAnn's to pick up some Cricut Vinyl rolls in brown and headed home. 

After a few trial and error's with the wrong "transfer paper" (I'm sooo not going to spend $10 to buy the real stuff online), I found a blogger that told me to try contact paper.  I tried that this afternoon, and voila, I have my very own, custom made to go cup.


Isn't it super cute!!?? It's a small bird on a cherry blossom tree. You need to click the image to see how intricate the flower petals look.  the lines are TINY, and yet came out perfectly!  Can we say "Christmas Presents"!!

And in the future, if I want to change it, I can just scrape it off, and print a different vinyl cut out to smooth onto the cup.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my Silhouette!!