threesixfive, days 355 thru 361???

somehow i dont have enough days in my year.....not sure how that happened.

its been a very long very hard week. warning: long story ahead.

my parents headed to mt pleasant,tx christmas night to spend a few days with my grandparents (on dads side) and celebrate christmas with them.

i got a call tuesday late morning that they found grandpa laying in the driveway (only a minute or so after it had happened, thank the Lord), and it appeared as if he had fallen out of the car while reaching to close the door (he had gone out to start it up and wait for everyone to come load up to go to lunch). when the ambulance got him to the hospital they discovered a collapsed lung and his heart was extremely enlarged. it was hard to tell if something happened in his body that caused him to fall, or if the fall caused the lung to collapse, although they believe it had been collapsing slowly over the last couple of months based on information from my grandma. the enlarged heart was not caused by the fall, but could easily have caused him to pass out briefly. he was admitted to the ICU and put on a breathing tube and a pulse to keep his heart beating correctly. they also had to figure out what to do about his lung. i felt very compelled to go and be with my family, so i left wednesday afternoon after we received more information and got to mt pleasant wednesday night (about a 5 hour drive). thursday morning he was stable enough for them to do a CT scan and they found a spot in his brain that needed further exploration. theres not a neurologist at the hospital there, so they flew him an hour and a half away to tyler. the specialist in tyler said the spot on his brain was a stroke and they would have to run some more tests and see how he did over the weekend before any major decisions could be made (drs wait 3 days after diagnosing a stroke before they discuss treatment). thursday afternoon his heart started beating very irregularly, and after some discussion with the nurse, a lot of prayer, and some hard but necessary and very candid heart to heart talks with my grandma, we decided it was best to remove the breathing tube and everything else they had him hooked up to. they couldnt actually get a dr to come in and do that until 8:30 friday morning. grandpa breathed really well on his own for about 5 or 6 minutes, then it became more shallow and his heart rate slowed. he closed his eyes and went to be be with the Lord at 8:37. thursday night my parents, my grandma, and i, stood around his bed and sang to him and talked to him. he couldnt respond, but he could hear us and every once in awhile he'd squeeze our hand. when they took the breathing tube out he actually rasped out a 'thank you'. we knew he was ready to go.

my mom and i came home friday afternoon, while my dad stayed with grandma.

we're leaving in the morning to go back for the service on tuesday.

i appreciate thoughts and prayers for my grandma. shes the godliest woman i know, so i know she'll be ok, but theres of course a grieving process to go thru. they just celebrated 55 years of marriage. he was 79 years old.

on a lighter note, here are my pictures for the week.

sunday

merry christmas!!!! molly got a mrs potts tea set, and has been quite the waitress since.

monday

allen got me a sewing machine!! so far i can thread it and sew a crooked line, but i WILL learn!

tuesday

we took some friends and a trailer to belton and went thru a great trail of lights they have there. this is me and molly and my friend emily and her two girls addie (mollys best friend) and katie.

wednesday

my new bedspread!! i love it!

thursday

i very quickly got this picture of grandpa being loaded in the helicopter so they could transport him to tyler.

friday

this is my grandpa and grandma. this picture is about 25 years old, but its seriously the most recent one i could find hanging in their house. :-/ they're not picture takers.

saturday

happy new year!!!!!

again, i covet your prayers for my family as we travel this week and spend time celebrating the life of my grandpa.

have a blessed first week of 2012!