Joey turns 12!

Today is Joey's 12th birthday. One more year and he will be a teen! He is having a sleepover with 7 of his friends and the noise from the basement is just CRAZY!!! They will calm down though, right??? So here are some pictures of him today. I took them with my crappy Sony so they are not the best!!

My boys and Belle

Joe! (If you click this to open it you will see a small little smile)

Jimmy, Joey, Danny, and Belle

I'm Done!

Well I am officially done with my first semester of full time school! My finals were done last Thursday but now grades have been posted and I really feel done. The kids are done today and we will all be on break, even Phil. His plant is having a mandatory shut down until January 4th. We are all looking forward to having some time off together!

Joey had his first band concert on December 17th. They did really good. I was expecting a lot of squeeks and mistakes but I didn't hear them. I was really impressed. Phil had to work that night, :( ,but we did video tape it for him. Phil's parents were able to make it though and we were really glad to have them there. They were both impressed with Joey's school and he enjoyed showing them where he spends his days. My mom also had to work that night and was missed, but we totally understand! Here a two pictures of that night.


Don't let my hat fool you, there is a lot of hair in there, he is taller than me!

Joey with his Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom! He's got a ways to go until he is taller than them!

Jimmy turns 10!!!!

I can not believe that it has been 10 years already! I feel so old saying this, but time really does fly! Since it has been a whole decade since he was born I thought that I would take a trip down memory lane and talk about the day that he was born.

Ten years ago right now I was still enjoying that cute, fat 10 lb baby boy. He looked perfect and exactly like Phil. Who knew that at 9:15 that night my world would be turned upside down when the nurse woke me up to tell me there was a problem with the baby. By 10:30 they were wheeling him into my room in an incubator and living off of a machine. The nurse was telling me that I should tell my baby goodbye. I stuck my hand through the little hole on the side, grabbed his hand and told him how much him mommy loved him. Five minutes later he was in a helicopter on his way to Rockford Memorial. He was diagnosed there with Transposition of the Great Vessels and sent immediately to Christ Hospital in Chicago. Phil and his family followed the helicopter all night long from Woodstock, to Rockford, and finally to Chicago. I was in my dark hospital room, with a huge incision from the cesarean, with my mom. She gave me an extra pillow to put on my incision, climbed into my bed, held me tight and told me to just go ahead and cry. I became the baby in my mom's arms that night. I don't know how I would have made it through the night with out her.

Three days later I was on my way to Christ Hospital. Now it was my turn to be strong and be the mom. I stood by Jimmy's bed as long as the nurses would allow me to. They kept getting angry with me and telling me that I was doing too much being that I was post op. I knew better. A mom can never do too much!

At six days old he was taken into surgery. Again the doctors' and the nurses' told us that we should have a moment with the baby. Phil told him that he loved him and had to leave the room. I leaned in reaching around all of the tubes that were keeping my precious baby boy alive and whispered Our Father and then Now I lay me down to sleep into his ear.

His surgery lasted 6 and a half hours. Those were truly the longest 6 and half hours of my life. I just sat there, numb, without any emotion staring at the carpet. Still today I have the design of the carpet ingrained in my brain. When it was finally over they said that Phil and I could go in and see him.He had a whole room to himself. Here he was this tiny little baby on a tiny little bed in a room filled with machines. Each one doing a different job to keep his tiny heart beating and lungs breathing. He had tubes every where. Not even his bald little head was spared because that is where one of the IVs was located. I was not allowed to speak because every time that I did his heart beat would go through the roof. I just sat silently rubbing my thumb along the top of his hand. We were only allowed to stay in there about 10 minutes.

When we went back into the waiting room and I saw my mom the flood gates finally broke. The emotions of the day just flew out of me as I fell into her arms. I was inconsolable. I had been so scared all week that we were going to lose him and I had held it all in wanting to be strong. Now that the worst was over, I could let go.

He ended up spending 3 weeks at Christ Hospital. There were ups and downs through that time but nothing like the actual day of surgery. Poor Joey was being bounced around like a beach ball from family member to family member. Thank God he was an easy going 2 year old and that we had such a helpful family. Phil and I never could have made it through this on our own. It was with family at our side every step of the way that we made it through.

Jimmy has never really stopped giving us challenges. He was the much fussier infant, the impossible toddler, the super attached preschooler, and the student that hates school. However, if you doubled all of the drama you would have the joy and laughter Jimmy brings into our lives every day. I still thank God for our little miracle!

Happy 10th birthday Jimmy, I love you.

P.S. My sister-in-law Kate captured the whole couple of weeks with pictures. At the time I remember telling her that I was never going to want to look at these again. However ten years later I am grateful to her for that. So, here are some of the pictures of that time. Thanks Kate!!

Molly and Phil ~ Visiting Jimmy in the NICU
Molly and Phil ~ Visiting Jimmy in the NICU
Baby Jimmy in the NICU ~ That adult hand is Phil's

Joey and Jimmy meet for the first time 12-20-97
This is the first time I held Jimmy 12-17-97 He was still hooked up to some machines as you can see. He went home 3 days later.

Update on Joe's "growth"

We went to the Dr. yesterday and walked out still not knowing much. The Dr. looked at it for about 5 seconds, looked up at me and said, "Is there any skin cancer in the family?" I told him that there is skin cancer all over on my mom's side of the family. He said, "Hmmmm??? We are going to need to take a culture of this."

As he was taking a culture I showed him another one that was growing right on above the current one. It is really tiny and flesh toned. I explained to him that this one looked exactly like that when it started. He looked up and me and said, "Yeah, that's not a wart. Wart's don't look like that."

So, he sent us home with some cream to apply twice a day and we need to keep band-aid's on there. He is thinking that we will have the results by Monday, Tuesday at the latest.

Now you know what I know! Does anyone in the medical field have any thoughts on what might be going on?

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Well I just have my village left and I will be all done with my Christmas decorations. It has taked me 3 days to get to this point. I really love our house at Christmas. Every single room gets decorated in every way. I literally remove the pictures from the wall and hang up Christmas pictures, or huge Santas, or wreaths. Christmas decortations are put on every shelf. Every banister is covered in garland and lights. It is like being in a new home for a month.

This is truly my favorite time of year. I love driving through the neighborhoods looking at all of the decorated houses. I love the music on the radio. I really love the giving spirt that most people have.

Last year we started a new tradition of staying home for Christmas Eve instead of going to my aunt and uncles with the whole family. Joey is turning 12 and we just feel like it is time to get some traditions in place for the four of us. This year we are going to do the same thing with a little twist. Instead of just sitting at home, cozy in front of the fire, we are going to go out and do some good. We are searching for a soup kitchen in or around Rockford that we could go to and serve some meals. After that we will come home and have our Christmas movies and fire just like last year. I really believe that this will show the boys the real meaning and spirit of Christmas. Not to mention that it will really make them appreciate the Christmas that they get here at our house.

On a medical note Joey has got something strange going on with his back. A few months back he showed me a growth on his lower left back. I told him that I thought it was a pimple and that it would go away. It was still there a few weeks later and I said that maybe it was a wart and we would keep an eye on it. Well it has continued to grow and is now changing color from flesh toned to red. I of course called the Dr. and we go in tomorrow at 2:00. Hopefully it will be something that they can remove right there in the office and we can be on our way. I will keep you updated.

Congratulations to my MOM!!

For those of you who don't know, my mom got a new job with Pace Bus Co. She was hired on a couple of weeks ago and has been training since. She went to Elk Grove Village yesterday and passed her 2nd big CDL test! The first one was about a week ago when she got her permit. It is official now! She has her CDL and will begin shadowing for the next couple of days and then will be driving on her own.

We all know that it is hard to start something new, especially when that means tons of learning and studying. Please send her a little note of congrats when you get a minute.

Way to go, Mom. We all love you!

Take off your shoes!

Well, I registered for next semester yesterday. I am really excited because I got all of the classes that I wanted and they are all on Tuesday and Thursday. I will have the rest of the week to do my studies and keep up my house. The other bonus is that out of 4 classes I only need 2 books! That is the best news and is going to save us tons of money. So next semester I will have Math, Speech, Psychology, and Art for teachers. I am looking forward to having some new classes and having a change.

Dawn and I went to David's Bridal today and got measured for our bridesmaids dresses for Amy's wedding. They were beautiful and we were both so excited!! Good choice, Amy!!

The boys are good. They have both had colds this week but still went to school. Joey is working on having perfect attendance because Phil had it when he was in 6th grade. They know that because they found the old award in a box down stairs. :-}

So, funny Jimmy story. While we were out trick or treating my niece Ellie ran up to us half crying and saying she didn't want to take off her shoes. We looked at her really surprised and said, "Of course you should not take off your shoes, we are trick or treating outside." She says, "But Jimmy said that we had to take off our shoes." I look up and there is Jimmy with all of his buddies in stockings ringing the person's door bell. I said, "Jimmy what on earth are you doing in you socks?" He says, completely seriously, "The sign on the door says 'TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES'" At this point all of the adults are laughing as I turn to Jimmy and say, "Only if you are going IN their house, Jimmy!!!!" He turns around to look at me, starts to blush and says, "OH!" All of the kids bend down, put their shoes back on and run to the next house. So, if you ever wondered where blond jokes came from, now you know!!!! This is the child that wants to go alone next year???

P.S. Let me know what you think of the new layout. I try to change it up every once and a while.