Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wild and crazy last couple days we've had.

Susanna Joelle was born at 3:01 AM on 11/21/07. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She has a little fuzzy brown hair. There were a few complications with the c-section, but everyone is healthy and doing well at this point.

Leah isn't really thrilled with the new addition to her family yet. Her first thoughts were "Susanna.. Cute!"

I'm sure that once she gets the idea that sister Susanna is here to stay, then Leah will warm up to her. But right now it's "Susanna... Cute!" and "Baby.. My sister.."

Our Thanksgiving plans had to be postponed due to Susanna's surprise entrance into the world. My sister Hilary can't have anything to eat other than liquids until tomorrow due to having had the c-section surgery, so there will be no turkey for her. (Unless we get her some of the Jones soda that's flavored like a Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey, mashed potatoes, etc... blech!) Mom, dad, Leah and myself had ourselves a Thanksgiving feast in the hospital cafeteria. Our dinner consisted of Cheetos's, peanut m&m's, and a rice krispy treat with a bottle of diet coke from the vending machines. We're moving the Turkey dinner to Sunday instead.

My older sister and younger brother are both ill, so postponing the dinner works out for all of us really. It gives them a chance to rest up for a day or so more, lets Hilary be eating real food and discharged from the hospital, gives mom a chance to go buy a turkey, and I have time to figure out what I'm bringing to the dinner. (We're doing it potluck style this year.)

Mom, Dad, and I brought Leah back up to mom's house this evening. She did really well for the 2 days we had her at the hospital, but she's only 2 years old. She can only sit still and be quiet for so long. That and she's in the middle of potty training, and a hospital isn't really condusive for that. She's been in a kinda off mood all day today. A bit on the fussy side. Probably a bit overwhelmed with what's all going on.

Grammy keeps a goldfish (Dorothy from Elmo's world) her at her house that Leah helps take care of when she comes to visit. She sprinkles the pinch of food into the bowl, makes sure Elmo and Mr. Noodle come visit, and that Dorothy is dizzy from having her bowl spun around and around. Dorothy being a normal goldfish passed away this last weekend. No one told Leah about Dorothy's demise, we just hid the empty bowl in hopes that she would forget about it. But, much to our surprise, Leah walked into the room tonight and announced to my dad and myself that "Dorothy...Dead!" Our jaws dropped and we just looked at each other. How could 2 year old Leah know that Dorothy's gone to that fishbowl in the sky? Strange! What a smart big girl we have.

Well gang, it's been a busy couple of days. I'm exhausted and planning to get up EARLY to get the day after Thanksgiving sales. I was planning on being in the woods hunting this weekend, but with the arrival of the baby and the fact that I already have the biggest deer on the pole, I'm going shopping instead. Hunting of a different sort per say. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a Girl!

It's official! Pink cigars for everyone!

My niece Susanna will be born with in the next 24 hours. Possibly as early as tonight. Hilary went to the Dr today and was told that all systems were go. Baby launch is imminent. Houston, we're having a baby.

It's funny really, we've been preparing for Susanna to be born for months now. But now that it's happening, we're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Mom had to go track down my brother Bill who was out in the woods trying to squeak in a few more days of hunting. His cell phone doesn't work up here. He left straight from the property, not even taking time to remove his blaze orange suit. Mom went back to her house and packed up his stuff and an over night bag for herself and is following Bill down to take care of my other nice Leah. Dad's still at work. (He's swamped from taking 2 days off last week.) I'm here playing command central trying to keep everyone in the loop. I've got my bags packed, the car loaded and am ready to go at the drop of a hat.

Susanna is obviously related to the rest of the women in my family. We're stubborn as heck and do everything when and how we want it. Never when its convenient for everyone else. All of the Thanksgiving plans are all up in the air. Are we going to be at mom's house in Mt. Pleasant, in the hospital in Grand Rapids, or in some restaurant somewhere in the middle? Who knows? We'll go with the flow and take things as they come.

Welcome to the world Susanna Joelle! I'm looking forward to meeting and spoiling you rotten. All my love, always and forever!

Hey all, Just a quick update on Jacob.

Jake had his first surgery today and it went better than expected, he was in the OR from 7:30 until 2:30. The Dr was very impressed with the amount of muscle tissue Jacob had and was able to completely close him without a patch! This was a surprise as Dr G thought at best Jake could be closed with a patch - if even completely closed at all during this surgery!

This means that there should not be any more O related surgeries if all goes as planned (hernia repair will happen in the future - but is not an immediate concern nor nearly as major of a surgery). The 'O' incision looks great - the PICU nurse said it looks better than any she has seen yet. Looks like he got into a knife fight or snagged it on a barbed wire fence while hunting! You would never know he had the 'O' for the last 10 months!

Jake will be on the ventilator until tomorrow at least, but he is doing better than expected. The GJ tube is placed, and we will begin feeds once he gets off the vent. The tube is exciting because we will be able to transition from jejunum to stomach feeds at home - no need for procedures to change it! The fundo went well, although Dr G said he had a hard time seeing around Jake's liver. He also did the LADDs' procedure, removed his appendix (since it was on the wrong side), removed the bands of LADD to prevent bowel obstruction of the intestine, and tacked the intestines down.

So, in all it's good news for Jake. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for him. Reffie

MO-MO and other hunting stories.

As promised, here are the 2007 hunting stories....



Thursday, November 15th. We're up at the crack o dawn. (4:30 A.M) We stagger out into deer camp central. (Also know as mom and dad's garage.) Dad, uncle Dave, my brother Bill and I all running on autopilot and adrenaline as we had stayed up far too late the night before. It's a 25 minute drive to the hunting property, so we can't dawdle too much.



The weather report shows a high in the low 40s and a low in the upper 20's. Windy with a chance for rain and snow. Sunrise came shortly after 7 AM. And the hunt was on. Around 7:10, I saw movement out of the corner of my right eye. The deer are starting to move. I saw 3 doe standing about 40 yards from my blind. I took aim at the largest one and fired. It stood there for a few seconds and then dropped to the ground. Spine shot just above the shoulder. She weighs approximately 150 -160 lbs. Everyone in our group got something on opening day. I got the only doe, dad got a 6 point, Uncle Dave got a 5 point, and brother Bill got a spike. Each of us have a combo tag which means that we could each get a large buck, a small buck, and a doe.

We hunt all day. We're out in our stands from 6:30 am to dark. So, after the initial excitement of my getting the doe, I was in for a long cold day. I sat there and watched about 15 other does cavort around. There was this small doe that was probably just out of fawn spots come around and stand like one of those target practice deers. The stupid thing came around 4-5 times and just stood around as if asking me to shoot it. I plotted to kill the stupid partridges that keep coming around sounding exactly like deer moving around in the woods. I read two books, and partook of my bounty of treats. (Going light on the liquids due to the fact that as a girl, I can't just go in the woods like the boys do.)

With the pressure off after getting my deer, I allowed my mind to relax and wander a bit. I was tired, cold, and on the down slope of an adrenaline rush. I started looking at my rifle for something to do to pass the time. (It's only around 8:30 at this point.) And I noticed some letters on the side of the barrel. I sat there and wondered, Who put MO-MO on my weapon? Then I realized that it said 30-30 not MO-MO. If you turn your head just right and are exhausted and freezing, you all can see it too right? (See photo above.)

Nov 16th. Day 2. Ok, Not quite as exciting as opening day. Dad got a 3 point that I had missed on earlier that morning. The biggest excitement was that our walkie talkies decided to act up that day. We could all hear each other, but were un able to talk back. All of us had problems with them at various parts of the day, so it made conversations interesting.

Nov. 17th Day 3. The coldest day so far. Today was slower than slow. I only saw 3 deer all day. My brother Bill got a really nice 4 point buck. I changed stands with my uncle with hopes of seeing a buck. At this point I've only seen 2. The 3 point that dad got and the BIG boy. Big boy is at the very least a 6 point with a huge rack. The only problem with that spot is that it's up in a huge pine tree. Not a major problem except I'm allergic to pine trees. And, I didn't see any more deer from that spot either. (So now I'm freezing, hungry,I have to go potty really bad, and itching like you wouldn't believe.)

Nov. 18th. Day 4. A day of rest. We decided to take a day off. There's 6 deer hanging from the post, so it's not like we have to go back out. We only get what we need for us and a few friends to eat, so we're not looking to get much more than the big boy. That and Dad and I have to go back to work tomorrow, so we have to get some sort of real sleep. And do laundry. We'll try one more time next weekend and then call it good.

Well gang, I'll talk at ya later. Hope you all had a good time.

Cya, reffie