Update: My FIL is doing well. They moved him into a regular room this morning, and my bil said he was walking around and in good spirits. Apparently he had some sort of robotic surgery. It was a miracle that his surgery was able to be performed by one of the few Doctors around who can do this surgery. So, Praise the Lord! Thanks for all your prayers.

My FIL is having his valve repair surgery this morning at 9:30. So any prayers are greatly appreciated. Fortunately, they are not going to have to do open heart surgery, but are going in through his veins/arteries. Hopefully this means a much quicker recovery time. Thanks for all your prayers this week.

I just wanted to ask for everyone to keep praying for my FIL. The surgery went well, but afterwards they found one of the valves in his heart isn't working properly, so he will have to undergo more surgery. He's doing well, but he has to stay in the hospital a while longer.

Prayer Request

My father-in-law is having gall-bladder surgery as I write, so if you feel so led, please lift him and my mil in prayer. He's been in the hospital since Monday night, but has been waiting for test results, etc. Splitcat has gone to the hospital to sit with his mom. Thanks!


I forgot to add to my last post that W weighs a little over 22 lbs, and M weighs 28.7 lbs. They are feeling better now since the antibiotics have kicked in.

We have our first official illnesses of the season. W. has a sinus infection and M has an ear infection. I am praying that this is the first and the last of the season.

The boy and the Girl are both well.

I put the babies in their pen for a few minutes before we left for the store this morning. Baby M fussed for a minute then it got really quiet. When I got up to look he was sound asleep. This is unusual for my children. They usually will only fall asleep in their bed or carseat.

I'm not sure what to post, but I am on a serious caffeine high, so I figured I could think of something. I haven't felt this hyper in some time.

Today was my last day of bible study. I really enjoyed the ladies at my table. We had a good time.

I really can't think of anything else to write about. My mind is whirling too fast.

The kids are good. Baby M. is having some reflux again, so any prayer is appreciated.

I feel so violated

My mother called me Monday morning. She said she had to tell me something, and she hoped I wouldn't be so mad I never talked to her again. She said I would probably be mad and then laugh. I said, okay, what did you do.

Well, she says. I was getting ready for bible study yesterday, and I felt like it was time to walk through some change again. As soon as she said that, I knew exactly what she had done.

Did you open Snoopy? I accused.

Yes, I did.

She was right, I was a little mad(I told her I felt violated), but it was really pretty funny. You see, Snoopy was an integral part of my childhood. Snoopy is a 2 ft high plastic bank. I don't know where it came from, it just always was. We dressed snoopy up, I am sure I often anointed him with my tinkerbell perfume, we hauled him around. And we put our spare change in him. We would peek down the slot to see how much money we had saved and try to guess how much was in it. We would plot and plan how we would spend the money when our mom finally cut open the little hole on the bottom and let the change out. I asked her how many hair clips were in it. She said she was surprised that there were only 2, so was I.

But here's the cool part. Walking though change requires, well, change. So she took the change from Snoopy, which was mostly pennies, and made a pile. Then she made another pile with mostly quarters and dimes that she had been saving from her spending money. Then people would choose which pile to start in. So what ended up happening is that the pile from Snoopy ended up representing all our childhood dreams and provision(which it was in fact my sister and I's childhood dreams to spend that change), and the other pile represented the changes and provisions of adulthood. So in walking from the Snoopy pile to the other pile, some were declaring the change from childhood to adulthood, or from believing for a little to believing for a lot. Yet some were compelled to go the other way, recapturing lost childhood dreams. She said she was stunned at how deeply the women in her group were impacted by this simple prophetic act. Then they all remembered the time they had to throw their shoes and begged to do that next week. Bible study with my mom is never dull.

So I had to forgive her for opening Snoopy. She never had a good reason for not opening him before. Even though we pleaded and begged. But Snoopy was opened at just the right time. Thankfully the damage is not irreparable. Because our children play with Snoopy the exact same way we did as children. And I would hate to deprive them of such a valuable childhood experience as dressing up a plastic Snoopy.

Fall Fun

Well, my children managed to have fun despite the fact that I refuse to let them trick or treat. Personally, I would prefer to pretend that Halloween is just another night. But if I stay home I have to deal with doorbell ringers, so we take our kids to a local "do" at a church. It'a free, so that's a plus. The kids came home with plenty of candy. I was going to stay home with all the lights off and the twins, but when I saw those costumes at the Disney Store, and they were a little less then $10 each I simply couldn't resist. So we all went. The twins had a good time looking at everyone, plus there are carnival rides, so they enjoyed watching those. Pooh was good at keeping his costume hat on, Tigger left his on for about half the time, which was longer than I expected. But Pooh kept trying to pull Tiggers head off(he sits behind him in the stroller) and was strangling his brother, so I thought it best to remove the temptation. I think Baby M liked being his own stuffed animal. The girl wore her Aurora Dress from last year, and I think I may get one more years wear out of it. I bought the boy a Captain Hook costume from the Disney store. He wasn't thrilled, he had told everyon he was going to be a ghost(which is against my rules) so he had no choice. Lots of people complimented him on his costume, but he still wasn't thrilled. It should fit at least one more year, also. I believe in getting my money's worth. I realized on Tuesday that P. still didn't have a costume, so I went first to party city. Do not go to party city the night before halloween. It was like a toy store on christmas eve. I left very quickly. I don't like their costumes much anyway, they are expensive and cheap looking. So I went to the disney store. They were having a sale. So I got a good deal for really nice costumes.