Surprise!!!

I can FINALLY post this!!

July 3, 2009 My baby girl and her sweet husband drove to Natchez today just for a few hours. It seems that they had something to tell us that just had to be done it person. Yes, that's right, my baby is having a baby!!!!! Sunny and Bud are expecting their first child next spring. We are beyond thrilled!! She is just 4 weeks along and will not see her doctor for another 2 weeks. They do not want to share the news except with family until she sees Dr. Breland. So, I am blogging about the wonderful news but will not be able to post it for a couple of weeks. At least this way I feel like I am sharing our joy! Going though these next 8 months with Sunny is going to be so much fun. She has probably already called me 5 times since she left here this afternoon to ask me questions. "Mama, is it okay for me to eat a turkey sandwich from Newk's tonight?".... I totally expect to hear from her at least once every day, which is fine with me! She is nervous and anxious but completely trusting God in this new experience. Every time she told another family member her first words after the news were, "Please pray for a safe and healthy pregnancy, delivery, and baby! So, when you happen to think of it, pray for Sunny, Bud and our new blessing!

Changed plans

Well....sometimes things just do not turn out as we plan them, do they? I guess God needs to remind us that He is the one in control and we are not. Last week was to be my week at the beach with my girls and grandbabies and then the guys were to join us at the end of the week for a few days. I went on down to Orange Beach on Saturday to have a couple of days by myself and to prepare for the kids to arrive. I wanted to get all the grocery shopping and some of the cooking done. Monday as the girls were driving down I got a call from Sunny saying that Pawpaw had called her and said that Aunt Becky's house was on fire. I had a feeling that something wasn't right and immediately called to check on things. The house was not on fire, thank God, and I thought well, daddy must have been asleep and was dreaming. Not long after this I received a call from daddy's OnCall Alert service saying he had pushed his button and they had dispatched an ambulance. Becky and Mattie got to his house and he seemed to be okay, but somewhat confused. The EMT's felt like he needed to go to the hospital to be checked out. They took him to Natchez Community Hospital where he had an xray and ct scan. Becky was told that he had had a stroke and had a brain bleed and they were sending him to UMC in Jackson. Bill was there by this time and after talking to him and to Becky it was decided for me to wait and see what the doctor's in Jackson said, especially since it was now after dark and the weather was bad in MS. So I stayed awake all night Monday night, back and forth on the phone with Mattie, Jessie, and Becky. Finally early Tuesday morning they told Becky they thought they culprit for daddy's confusion was a urinary tract infection and they were putting him on i v antibiotics. After hearing this and talking with Bill, Becky and the girls again, I decided to spend at least one day at the beach with the kids. Daddy knew who everybody was and the doctors fully expected him to respond to the antibiotic. I had a good day with the kids Tuesday, we played on the beach and in the water, we swam in the pool, we went out to eat at The Hangout and then Skyler and I hit the tennis ball some. We had planned to go see the Blue Angels practice Wednesday morning early, so Syd, Sunny, Skyler, Will and Mylie did that and it was awesome!! Of course all this time I was back and forth on the phone with Jessie or Becky. Bill had gone up Tuesday afternoon and spent the night with daddy in the hospital so Becky could get some rest. He said daddy was much better Tuesday night than he had been Monday afternoon. Wednesday morning Becky said that the social worker had told her that daddy was probably going to be there awhile and that he could not go back home to his house. Knowing that Becky needed help, I needed to see daddy, and we had decisions to make I had decided to head to Jackson after seeing the Blue Angels Wed. morning. I got to Jackson around 5:30 and daddy was asleep when I got in his room. I sat on the foot of his bed and talked with Becky and when he woke up and saw me his face lit up! He was 100% better and the doctors had told Becky after reading his MRI that he had not had a stroke and that the UTI had caused the confusion and that he would be released on Thursday. We had already been in the process of getting him into the Magnolia House and were able to speed the process up. So we left Jackson with him Thursday afternoon and took him straight to his new "home." He has been doing really good, eating well and saying how good the food is, socializing with people, etc... we are very pleased. Today he has not quite been so good, he is very weak, to the point that they had to feed him his lunch, and very sleepy. He knows us but is saying some things that do not make sense. Becky and I are wondering if he is having mini strokes, but the MRI in Jackson did not show that. Please just keep him and us in your prayers. We so want him to be able to enjoy life until the very end, whenever that may be, and not be down sick and having to be totally dependant on others for his care. Hoping all is well in all of your worlds! Enjoy a few picts from the beach!

It's July!

Wow, today is the first day of July. This year is flying by. Of course the older I get the quicker the years seem to go. I am looking forward to several events this month. The week of July 11th - 18th will be Salters' week at my sister and brother-in-law's condo at Orange Beach. The girls, kids and I will be there most all of the week and will be joined by the guys toward the end of the week. I cannot wait!! Any of you reading this know that I am a "beach" person and I LOVE watching my babies love it too. Macy, at almost 2, will be able to enjoy it more this year. Of course Skyler, Mylie and Will already love it and baby Wes will have to wait another year or so to learn to love it! I also LOVE being with all my girls, and sometimes it's good to just have them without their husbands. Do NOT get me wrong, I love my son-in-laws, all three of them, but I do enjoy just my girls sometimes. By the way, Father's Day weekend was all I was hoping it would be! We had an absolute wonderful weekend together. One of the highlights for me was all of us being in church together, hearing Bill sing Butterfly Kisses and then hearing Jason Meyer preach THE best Father's Day sermon I have ever heard. Back to the month at hand, a week after I get back for the condo with all the kids, I am going back for a long weekend with several of my cousins and my sister. We have gotten together for beach trips and one time a cruise for the last 4 or 5 years and it is wonderful. We have such a great time reminiscing about our childhood and all the fun we had and how blessed we all are to have had the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that we did and do have. I will come home on July 28 and then the first week of August brings celebrations! Bill and I will be married 35 years on August 3rd!! It seems impossible that is has been that long. I know that the young married couples in my life get so tired of hearing me say,"Enjoy every minute", "Enjoy your children!! Do not major on the minors" ,"Pay attention to your relationship with your spouse!" and so many other things that I have learned through the years. I guess I hope that at least some of it will sink in! It really does all go so very fast!! We celebrate Bill's birthday on August 5the and then on the 6th we leave for DESTIN!!! That is our week of vacation with our good friends the Crosby's and the Jackson's. We are so blessed to be able to go and do the things that we get to do with our family and friends. I never want to take any of it for granted! Guess that is about it for now. I am going to post a few pictures from our last family trip to the beach two years ago...Sarah was pg with Macy...hope you enjoy!

Father's Day

I am so excited about the upcoming weekend!! All of my children will arrive at my house at some point TOMORROW! Our empty nest will once again, even if for only a few days, be filled with the sounds of a big, happy family. Sisters will enjoy catching up with each other, cousins will love playing, swimming, and just being together, son-in-laws will figure out ways to aggravate their mother-in-law just for the fun of it, Mimi and Poppa will have full laps, and will sit back and just listen to the joy that will surround them! Of course, there will be the normal one or two fits pitched, tears cried, and maybe a cross word or two, but they won't last long and will soon be forgotten. And in the middle of it all will be a beautiful new blessing, Wesley Nathaniel Loy!!

Saturday we will gather at my sister, Becky's house and celebrate my daddy's 84th birthday and Father's Day together. My niece Jessie and her husband Lance will be home for the celebrations. Niece Mattie is already home for the summer. This will be the first time we have all been together in a while and there will be plenty of good food, birthday cake, and lots of fun and laughter! We will remember past days when daddy was younger and mama was well and be thankful for the memories! And we will thank God that daddy is still here to celebrate with us!

Sunday will be a special day as we all attend church together on Father's Day. Bill will be singing "Butterfly Kisses" with all three of his girls sitting there listening, pray that he makes it through! I will sit there surrounded by those that I love most in this world and praise the ONE from whom ALL blessings flow. How blessed I am to have the two most loving, caring, honest, dedicated, wonderful men as my earthly father and my husband and father to my children! Jim Carlisle and Bill Salters are the most Godly examples of what a "daddy" is supposed to be. They have loved their girls unconditionally and shown them that love not only by what they say, but what they do. They taught them from a very young age to love God and led them to faith in Jesus, not only by telling them about His love for them but by living their lives as an real example of what it means to be a Christian. I do not know why God has chosen to grace me to be one's daughter and the other one's wife. I can never thank Him enough for that privilege!!

Wesley Nathaniel Loy

So, I just realized that I posted the night before Wes was born and then my next post is the one about my crazy week with the dogs....had to come back and catch y'all up on our sweet new baby boy! Wesley was born on May 18 at 2:37pm. Sarah and Jeremy got to the hospital around 7 and they began the induction. Bill and I arrived about 9 and she was in the middle of getting her epidural. She had actually been having some pretty hard contractions which she had never felt before and was ready to stop! I tell these young mothers all the time most of them do NOT know what REAL childbirth is like!! They get epidurals when they are only dilated to like 3. Try being in hard labor for 12 hours or longer with NO epidural!!! I am actually thankful that my girls have not had to experience that! Anyway, back to Wes! Sarah actually progressed fairly quickly and was at 10 and ready to push around 2:10pm... then we had to wait on the doctor. He arrived and before we knew it Wesley Nathaniel Loy had come into the world. He weighed 8lbs and 7 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. I have been so very blessed to actually be in the delivery room for the birth of all 5 of my grandchildren!! How awesome is that? God is so good! I was afraid that Sarah may go into labor and deliver Wes before I could get to Tupelo. God orchestrated everything just perfectly! Sarah and Jeremy brought Wes home on Thursday and I stayed until that Saturday. He turned 3 weeks old yesterday and I am about to die to get my hands on him again. They are coming to Natchez July 1st, but I am trying to work in a weekend trip up there before then. Here are a couple of picts that Sarah sent me yesterday.

What a week!

I am so thankful that today is the beginning of a brand new week and glad to put last week in the past! Keeping two dogs for an entire week when you have not had a pet for several years is not a great idea. Sunny and Bud left a week ago yesterday on a cruise to celebrate their 4th wedding anniversary and Bill and I, who by the way have no special plans as of yet to celebrate our 35th anniversary in August(what is wrong with this picture?), kept Callie and Cuddles for them. Actually I should say that I kept them... Bill didn't really do anything with them or for them! Sunny and Bud do not have any children yet, so the dogs are absolutely spoiled rotten, of course they sleep in the bed with them. So, the first couple of nights, Cuddles, Callie and I, slept, I use that word loosely, in one of our extra bedrooms. Callie woke me up every night anywhere around 2,3 or 4 am...I was a walking zombie. On the third night I was awakened by something cold and wet... Callie had wet the bed!!! Needless to say she did not sleep with Cuddles and I the rest of the week! The week rocked along and we got to Friday...last day before we took them back to meet their parents Saturday morning. The weather was so nice that I decided Friday afternoon to finally give the flower beds in my back yard some attention. I was so proud of myself!! I was sitting on a small stool and just working along when I turned around and saw something in Callie's mouth. I quickly realized that my cell phone was missing from the place on the stool beside me where I had laid it. I had taken the phone out with me in case daddy tried to call me. I jumped up and ran over to retrieve the phone hoping that she had just picked it up and that it would not be harmed. No such luck! She took off running several feet before finally dropping my phone. Now, this was not my old razor phone that I have had for several years. Oh no! Just 3 weeks ago I had made the big leap and gotten me a nice Blackberry curve. Thank goodness I did purchase insurance! However, the deductible is $150.00. So, my $450 phone, that I got for $200 since I signed a 2 year contract, is going to end up costing me $350.00! The week did end wonderfully.. we met Sunny and Bud in Brookhaven yesterday morning and gave the dogs back!!! YAY!! And then we drove over to Mendenhall and spent the day with Sydney, Tony, Skyler and Mylie. Mylie had her first dance recital and we were so glad to get to be there. She did great and looked beautiful! So, today we began a new week and I for one am glad it is not last week!!

Thinking about life and death

Tomorrow morning my sweet, wonderful, caring, beautiful daughter Sarah will be induced and give birth to her new baby son, Wesley Nathaniel Loy... what joy! I learned early this morning that my sweet, caring, loving, funny first cousin, Buddy Taylor, had died during the night last night... sad, but also joyful because of his faith in Jesus. I started thinking about some of the major losses in my life and how many of them coincided with major births. Several days after Sarah was born, my "Uncle" passed away, when Sunny was born my Pawpaw Jesse died. When my wonderful cousin Ava lost her battle with breast cancer at age 43 our dear friends, Mike and Jeanna Crowder welcomed Josh to their family. Will was born on November 17 and just a few days later, two days before Thanksgiving, we lost our sweet Uncle Jack. And now we have lost Buddy and Wes will be born tomorrow. I know there are other incidences like these in my life and others lives. Isn't that just like our God? That even while we are sad and mourning the loss of loved ones, He sends a new life, full of promise to remind us that life goes on and that He loves us so very much. So, as I go to sleep tonight anxiously awaiting tomorrow and praying for a healthy baby and safe, normal delivery, I am also thanking God for Buddy's life and that I know he is safe at Home!