I'm So Glad My Daddy Came Home!

Once again, thank you SO much everyone for your love and concern. My family and I all really felt the strength of your love and prayers. It meant so much to all of us.

So pretty much as soon as Dad's balloon pump and chest tubes came out, he improved very quickly. From there everything kept looking better and better. He was up and walking (not briskly, but not shuffling either) around the ICU within a day. His spirits were much improved, and he was back to his old self.

He made such great progress that they released him this afternoon!! And now he's home. I was able to take the kids to Grammy & Opa's to see him. They haven't been able to see him since he went in to the hospital. I think they were just a little wary of the oxygen in his nose, which, he's still on oxygen since his lungs aren't to full capacity yet. But that's the only thing left! But I think the kids were still glad to see Opa and hug him (very gently)! I'm sure Dad's glad to be home, and sleeping in his own bed. And I know Mom's glad to have him there too. Dad just seemed happy to me. Mom seemed physically and emotionally exhausted! I think a good night's rest will do them both a world of good.

Thank you all again for the love and support. We can all be relieved that he's home now!

Update

Thank you everyone for your prayers and well wishes. It really means so much to me and my family.

I just got back from the Hospital and I am SO happy to report that my Dad is doing much better. He really seems more like himself. He's not quite up to his joke-cracking self, but I can just tell his spirits are much improved. I was able to visit with him for about 10 or 15 minutes, but even just that much wore him out and he was ready to rest again. But even getting that much was so much better than Monday and especially Sunday. Breathing right now is one of the hardest things. Every breath is painful. But getting better. Which is why he can't visit for very long. Which, if you know my Dad is hard. He loves visiting with people.

They were able to remove the balloon last night that was helping his heart beat normally. That was a huge step in the right direction. He was able to stand 3 times during the night and the physical therapist had him move his legs. There wasn't excess fluid while he was standing which was a great sign. His fever is now gone. He slept for 2-3 hour stretches last night which I think helped a lot. And as I was leaving, the nurse came in to take out the tubes in his chest! Dad's nurse said that removing the chest tubes will relieve a LOT of the pain. We're really hopeful for that.

So Dad's had a lot of steps in the right direction. We're so grateful. And we know the Lord has heard and is answering our prayers. Thank you all again. We are so blessed. I'll add more updates as they come.

Prayers Needed

I'm sorry I'm so slow at posting. I've had a whirlwind of a week (don't I always seem to say that?) and an even worse weekend. But I just wanted to pop in for a quick request for prayer for my Dad. He had a rough night last Friday. Went in to the hospital on Saturday morning. Turns out he suffered a massive heart attack and went in for open heart surgery on Sunday morning. And it turned out to be more serious than we were thinking. He's having a rough time recovering, and is in a lot of pain. Today he seems better than he did yesterday, but still certainly not himself. Mom says she's anxious for him to start cracking jokes--really bad ones that make everyone roll their eyes. Then she knows he'll be okay. So if you have a moment in your day, please say a little prayer for him that he'll recover quickly and not be in so much pain. That's the hardest thing for me to see right now.

But on a lighter note...I know some of you may not have heard the happy news: all you that guessed I was having a little girl, well, you turned out to be right!

It's a girl!

(Sorry about the pictures. I don't know how to work the scanner, so I just took pictures of the pictures. Not the best quality, but at least you can still see her cute little profile, and arm, and...well, I still can't really see how she's a girl, so good luck!)

We're all so thrilled. Brooke especially. She drew a darling picture of me and my pregnant belly a few weeks ago, before the ultrasound, and at the top wrote the words, "Girl...Be a girl..." She's been wanting a little sister for years now. I was a little nervous for Evan, because he was pretty adament that I was having a boy. But we talked about it a lot and I prepped him in case it didn't turn out the way he wanted. After the ultrasound, we went into the waiting room and sat down for a minute. I asked him how he felt about us having a girl. And his reaction was, "I'm good! Now I get to be the best part of an Oreo cookie!" Sure glad he can see the good side of a less than desired situation! Now if I can just keep that optimism, and with the Lord's help, of course, we'll be good.

Who Needs Television?

I have to say, I have the greatest husband in the world! He took off 2 weeks over the Christmas break to start work on our basement. I'm still amazed that he can manage to figure out how to build an entire basement almost completely on his own! Of course, he has gotten some help from me and the kids:

Although, I'm not really sure how much they really help. But I think the kids and Vince all enjoy working together on this big project.

A few months ago, Vince began the big basement project by building me food storage shelves in the utitily room. Don't they look great?! And now I finally have a place to put all the stuff I buy from the sales I found on Pinching Your Pennies.

Yes, Mom. It is mostly cereal. Have to have my year's supply of Cheerios!

And I'm just including this picture because way in the corner on the left side is my official stash of diapers! They had a great sale this week (thanks, Heather!), and I feel so proud to have 6 packages of diapers on my storage shelf! It's been many long years since I've had to buy diapers.

The other most exciting thing that's happened in the Hogge house came this week. Remember that washer and dryer I mentioned in a previous post? Well, Vince got a nice Christmas bonus from work this year, and he decided (yes, it was actually HIS idea) it was time to get an upgrade:

A front loader, even! It's amazing what new appliances can do to boost your enthusiasm for doing mundane chores. Vince commented how...what's the word he used...BARE the laundry room looked without the loads of dirty clothes that normally pile up. Just this morning I walked in my laundry room and thought, "Oh, I want to wash something! What can I wash?" I guess it really shows that I'm old, because this has been the highlight of my week! As the delivery man was leaving on Tuesday, he could tell how excited I was to have my new washer and dryer. He looked at me and laughed, and asked, "Now, did you ever think when you were growing up that you'd be so excited to do laundry?" Nope. But I am now! And the only problem I have now is, who can I get to fold it...

One of my favorite things about getting the new washer has been to see how excited Brooke & Evan have been! They were so happy that they can help me unload the wet clothes and pile them in and start the dryer. And because it's a front loader, they have become mesmerized by the clothes spinning around and around getting clean:

Man! Who needs a television when you have a washing machine?

I Can Run Again!!

I don't really have much to report. Life is back to its normal craziness. I have to say, though, Monday was a very hard day for me, as I just didn't want the nice, relaxing Holiday to end. I LOVED having Vince home full time. He took both weeks off of work to start on our basement (HOORAY!!) And he got a great start on the framing. I'm still amazed that he can figure out how to actually build stuff on his own! But, sadly, he's back traveling again, and has been gone all week. It's so hard to go from having him home all the time, to being home just on the weekends again. We sure all miss him!

And although getting back to real life has been another adjustment, I am so happy that at least I'm feeling much better now. I'm still taking my daily dose of Unisom/Vitamin B6 to keep the nausea under control. But I can finally eat most foods again. It's such a relief! Except that now I'm really starting to miss my body. It's hard to see the numbers creep up on the scale. I know it's for a good purpose and that I have to get over the struggle. But I just keep thinking how HARD I worked all those months. So I decided I can at the very least start exercising consistently again, and cut back on those extra little tasty treats, since I'm not nearly as nauseous anymore. So last week, we had a break from the snow (finally) and it was actually fairly warm and pleasant, and most of the roads were starting to melt away. So I left Vince with the kids and started on a nice walk around the neighborhood. After about a mile, I felt really good, (and since I was heading DOWN the hill ;) I decided to start running. Well, can't really say running actually. It was definitely a SLOW jog. I was planning to just do maybe 1/2 mile, if I felt good. But I felt REALLY good, so I kept going, and ended up jogging another full mile! I was so happy that it was pretty easy for me, since it's been months since I've felt well enough to even attempt it. Now if life can just settle back into a real routine again, I'll hopefully make this a nice, consistent habit again. And I'm hoping that will help keep me healthy through the next 20 weeks, and certainly after that into the summer months!