Corbin

Please say a prayer for the Grabb family. Corbin lost his battle he has been fighting ever since his Fontan surgery months ago. I have been following their care page at carepage.com CorbinGrabb for many months and was really praying and hoping he could pull through this. This families faith is evident and so powerful and has been a testimony to many. I don't understand why babies like Corbin have to be taken away. Crying and praying for the Grabb family and so many other's whose babies have been taken away. It makes me feel horrible and at a lost for words, what do you say to someone who just lost their precious baby? I guess there is nothing and even things I think of seem inadequate.

Catfish Festival

Thanks for everyone's concern, Evan is doing just fine now. His fever left Fri. night and has not returned and no other symptoms other than a lot of wax in his ear last night after bath time. Maybe it was a slight ear infection or teething, who knows. We met last Sat. night with our Heart Walk team and I'm so excited about all we have planned for this year's Kentuckiana Heart Walk, more to come later about that. Eric and my dad are leaving this Fri. for the catfish festival that is in Morgantown, KY where my family is from. This is a 4 day festival where the Green River is stocked with tagged catfish and if you catch a tagged fish and turn in the tag, then all tags are put in for a drawing for up to $50,000. Of course every year they come back with all their stories on how they had a fish hooked and saw the tag and it got away, LOL. I think they enjoy taking my dad's boat out more than anything else! So, Evan and I will be staying at mom's from Fri.-Tue. because I'm a whimp and hate staying home alone. I use to go to the festival - thought it was lots of fun when I was a kid. They have carnival rides those four day's at the Butler County Fair and I loved staying with my cousins. I still would love to see the family but, the fair doesn't hold it's sparkle like it use too and we have the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville so, I'll take Evan to that. I'm such a home body (mine or my parents) and do not like the whole packing everything you can imagine you might need now that I have a kiddo. So, the city women (me and my mom) along with Evan will be shopping and eating out while our country husbands are fishing. Bring home the money!!!

Stupid Me!

I can't believe this, just yesterday I posted on Jacob's blog that Evan has luckily only had one fever and other than his heart stuff he has never been sick but that one time. Stupid me just had to say it and guess what, Evan is sick. He kind of acted whiney all day yesterday, I thought it was just him missing his bottle because he was playing fine. Last night during bathtime he said he was cold and I checked his forehead and it was hot so I got him out of the tub and he was shivering and crying and wouldn't even stand to get his pj's on. By the the time I got him dressed and checked his temp. (100.5) he was asleep on the couch and moaning and groaning. I felt so bad for him, I've never seen him act like this and I was really worried so I slept in his bed and kept him warm. He never just lays down and goes to sleep like that, you could really tell he felt horrible. The fever comes down with Tylenol and no other symptoms are showing yet so I'm not sure if I should take him to see the doc or not. I hate to take him because I'm sure they will just say it is a virus and he would probably end up catching something else while we were there. Guess I'll wait until around noon and see if the fever comes back when the Tylenol wears off. This is no fun.

Crazy Obsessed with the Pressure Washer

Okay, I'm really having too much fun using a pressure washer we borrowed from Eric's brother! You see, Eric (with help from his brother and my dad) built a 2 1/2 car garage at our house, don't get too impressed just yet, it took from Nov. 2003 until now!!! Let's just say it was a work in progress as they started in the winter and then it was too cold and then Evan was born and well you all know how stressful that was then the work began again and stopped when it was too hot and then Evan's surgery and then too cold again, so on and so on but, YIPEE it is done and looks great! Well since it took so long, the supplies got dirty just lying around so Eric's brother let us borrow the pressure washer to clean it up. The garage was the main thing but I was just excited and went ahead and did the house too, everything was covered in yeast as we do live in the Bourbon Capital of the world and the little black yeast specks from the distilleries were all over the shutters and gutters and that just cleaned it right up. I have worked on it the last two nights and you will not believe how excited I am, I love to clean and this is right up my ally, Eric just shakes his head and walks off, he know's I'm not stopping until everything is spick and span!!! All I have left is the walkway and porch. Unbelieveable how much happiness this has brought me and I'm sure no one else notices that my shutters look brand new or that my gutters are sparkling white. My brother called me the Mad Pressure Wash Women, LOL.
On another note my little boy is growing up way too fast! Evan has always been attached to his bottle and really nothing else and the doc had told me to let him keep having it since he was so attached and that we might need it before/after the cath. to calm him down. Well the cath. was 2 months ago and Evan was still taking his bottle. That is until Sun., I accidentially left it at my mom's and when we got home and got ready for bed I realized and told him we lost it and I put it in a cup and he had none of that but, he didn't cry about the bottle either. So, the bottle is gone and he really isn't drinking milk from a cup but, we'll keep trying.

The Men in my Life

Father's Day is this Sunday and I'm dedicating this entry to the two men who had a hand in raising me ~ my dad and my brother, and the man that is raising my child ~ my husband. I'm the baby in my family, I was born 15 years after my brother and my parents were in their mid thirties. My dad was always the provider for our family, working hard every day from 7:00-4:00 and home every day at 4:20. My dad worked at our towns Gas and Electric company and had a somewhat dangerous job working on electrical lines and transformers. Back in 1999 Eric and I had just gotten engaged and I was going to school full time and working part time. My brother had just had kidney stone surgery and had called me at work and asked that I go to the grocery for him that evening after work. I was pretty busy that day, had already been to school all morning and was working and had to rehearse that night back at school for a concert. I was not thrilled to have to grocery shop for my brother and decided looking at the clock that it was 4:20 and my dad should be home, maybe he could go to the grocery. I called home and no answer and tried again 10 minutes later. I knew that dad was rarely late so, I dialed again and listened to the messages on the answering machine. There was 1 message from a guy my dad works with who is also a neighbor saying that he was sorry for what happened today and that if we needed anything like getting my dad's truck home from work to just call and he would be happy to help. WHAT??!! I called my brother back and demanded to know what was going on and he told me that Dad had been electrocuted at work and that he was just trying to get me to his house so we could go to the hospital together. I left and when I arrived I had no memory from the time I left work until I got to the hospital. Dad was electrocuted with 14,000 volts of electricity. The electricity went through one hand across his chest and out the other hand and blew him off a tall Fiberglas ladder which they say saved him because they believe when he hit the ground the blow started his heart back. My dad came home 5 days later and I daily helped him dress and doctor the wounds on his fingers. He still takes medication because of the fried nerve endings and memory loss but, he is such a blessing. Now its been 7 years since the accident and although he took early retirement (he worked there for 32 yrs.) he is still alive and blesses our family with his stubbornness. What would Evan do without his Papaw? I love you daddy, your a miracle.
As I said my brother is 15 years my elder so, he was my cool dad. The one they trusted to leave me with but still let me get away with a little more than my parents would have. I always felt so "cool" riding around with him listening to "cool" music doing "cool" things. He has taught me so much about life and diversity and loving someone because of who they are and their individuality. I would not be who I am today without him and the life lessons he taught his little sis. My son absolutely loves him and has given him the nickname of "Munc" because when first learning his name he couldn't say Uncle Michael so Munc it became. Evan now knows that "Munc" is Uncle Michael but will correct you if you try to use that name instead of Munc. I hope that Munc knows that his little sister loves him and is so grateful for our relationship.
Eric and I married in 2000 and bought our first home in 2002. We were so excited and ready to start a family together. I got pregnant right away and we were so excited. It was October 2002 and within weeks after we found out I was pregnant I began to spot. We called the doctors and went for several ultrasounds and everytime they reassured us that everything was okay and they baby looked fine. At 12 weeks pregnant I woke up early for church and my water broke. Eric tried to convince me on the way to the hospital that everything was fine but, we both knew. I couldn't go home and stayed with my parents for a few days and Eric went home and put up anything that might remind me of the baby. I'm sure that was hard on him and I really think the miscarriage sent us both into a sort of depression for a while. About 6 months later we decided to try again and immediately became pregnant and had no complications throughout the entire pregnancy. Because of the babies size the doctors decided to induce labor on Feb. 5 but the baby didn't come until 2:20am on Feb. 6. We were thrilled, Evan Thomas was finally here and he was perfect. After family went home we were able to catch a few hours of sleep with our little one in the room with us and we just smiled, it was perfect, we were finally a family. The next morning at rounds they kept Evan longer than they had said and I sent Eric to find out why. When he returned I knew something was wrong and with tears in his eyes and a determined face he told me we had to get to the NICU that something was wrong. That was the beginning of our ride with having a child with a CHD. Tetralogy of Fallot, is the diagnosis that we were given. We were so scared, scared of losing him and scared of what life was going to be like. Two years later with 1 surgery and 2 cath's behind us we are still together as a family. There have been ups and downs, scary times and happy times but, we made it. Our lives are forever changed. Eric has always been there for me and Evan and for that I'm grateful. Thank you for being a wonderful husband and a wonderful father to our child I could not have made it without you. XOXO

My Birthday is Over

My birthday was back in Nov. but my DH bought me season tickets to the Broadway of Louisville so my birthday lasted from Nov. until yesterday. My brother and his family and my mom also got tickets so we have spent 5 Sundays together the last 6 months seeing; The King and I, Annie, Hairspray, Tuesdays with Morrie and yesterday my favorite, Little Women. I sure have had a blast. Yesterday especially made me miss my college days. I majored in Music and I miss singing. It's weird, I went to college for Music and it was my life for 5 years, (yes it took me 5 years to get a major and a minor, I spent one semester crying over a boy) and now the only songs I sing are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and the such. I was so proud of our college choir and all we accomplished, we even sang at the 2001 Presidential Inauguration. Man does time change a person, I'm not sure I could do all that now. Anyway, seeing the show yesterday reminded me of how much I love to sing and love music and how it was not too long ago that I was on that very stage singing (only in the choir, I'm not a soloist). Anyway, I can't wait until Oct. and hope that somehow I get tickets again, I really really enjoyed myself.
Sat. we took Evan to see Cars with my BF Kelley and her little boy Logan. Boy did they have fun, mostly eating popcorn and sno-caps, found out they are really good together, yummy. Neither kid lasted through the whole show but we did see all but about 20 minutes of it. Kelley and I grew up next door to one another and stayed neighbors until I was 8 and then they moved 12 miles away. Kelley and I thought that it was the end of our friendship and I still have the Strawberry Shortcake notecard that says, "Sarah, I will miss you and I hope that you find another bestfriend. Love, Kelley". Needless to say we still spent every weekend together and the friendship has grown through the years and now that we are both parents we have big plans for our boys to be best of friends, I guess they will decide that but we are going to give them plenty of opportunities. Not sure how many people stay so close with their childhood friends but, I count myself very lucky.

Pictures

Coots Cousins/Coots Brothers & Sisters











Evan's new bed

The Family

We have been on the go ever since our vacation. Every year my dad's family which consists of 15 brothers and sisters and a bunch of cousins and 2nd cousins get together for Memorial Day at our family park, The Coots Park in Morgantown KY. This side of my family is huge but, I feel very blessed to have each and everyone of them in my life. For those of my cousins who are more like sisters, I love ya and am so happy we got to spend a little time together and can't wait until your visit later this summer! This weekend Evan's new bed came in and we put it together in a rush Fri. night. I was real worried about how he would do but, HE LOVES IT!!! He just jumped and laughed when he saw it, he is doing really good with it and is sleeping all night in there by himself. We also went this weekend with my mom's family and put flowers on Mamaw's grave however Evan and I spent most the time in the church because Evan kept saying he needed to potty. Finally I told him to quit telling me he needed to go if he really didn't need to and he said, "but Mommy I just needed a little air, it is hot outside" ha, ha my city slicker loves air conditioning. I never get to see my mom's side of the family so I was excited to see them but, I should have known there would be no visiting for me while Evan was around. (ha)
Please remember a friend of mines friend's family in prayer. They had a little girl last week, Alyssa. She was born with coarctation of the aorta with other defects and the surgeon (same one as Evan's) said that either he will be able to fix it in the operating room or she will not come out of there. They are just trying to buy time for her to grow and she is really shocking them that she can hold her own right now.
Also for Sophia (see blog to the right) she had her cath. this week, which was successful and is having surgery later this month.