Oh, SpRiNg!

Wow a lot has happened in the past month!
My dad had 4 surgeries and has spent a total of 3 weeks in the hospital.
He is now home and on the mend, which will be a very long one. He will be laid up for about 6 months before he can even think about working.

Derek still hasn't been able to find a citizen job, but through lots of prayer and paying our tithing we are able to stay on our feet and take care of our family! Thank goodness for the military and the VA Association.
Derek and I got a pretty healthy tax return this year and have decided to do some fixing up around our home. We have a lot of small projects to do.
1. Remodeling our room - replacing closet doors and painting a little
2. Landscaping our front yard - breaking out the ugly brick and planting some beautiful flowers
3. Fixing the basement ceiling from the bathroom flood - and the lights
4. Gardening - It's bigger this year so we need some more boxes
5. Gutters - the south side gutters fell from the harsh winter, need replaced
6. Move the living room around to make room for the computer and TV
7. Set up the old computer room for...


!THE BABY!
Yup, it's official. We are expecting! I am about 3 months along, so we don't know the sex of the baby yet, we are hoping for a girl, but a healthy baby is all we really care about!
Alexander has decided that the baby is a girl and has named her
Melissa
He is so funny. He is constantly reminding me that I have a baby girl in my
tummy and that she is Melissa!
We have no idea where he came up with this name, as he has never met a Melissa before in his life. So if it is a girl she will most likely be Melissa, I doubt, we could get Xander to call her anything else! :)
Currently we are working on a middle name! I would like to find a family name, either a grandparent or something from genealogy! That is where we got Skyler from, My Great Grandpa Gerald Acton's family genealogy book! We shall see!

Derek is doing amazing in his last semester at OTC!
He has great grades and was informed by his Trigonometry teacher that he is his top student!
Go honey! I am just a little proud of my smarty pants husband!
I can't wait for him to get his Associates and move on to his bachelor's.
It's so great to make progress and so fun to celebrate our lives moving forward!

I will post some pictures later of our Fix it's and our garden!
Have a HAPPY EASTER everyone!

One more time

,

Anyone that knows me, knows how important family is to me.
Especially my daddy.
Today is a scary day for my family,
The past week my dad has been having severe headaches to the point that he hasn't been able to keep any food down. Yesterday he went to the doctor, after a few questions about his symptoms Dr. Afshar decided that my dad needed a cat-scan.
The scan revealed that my dad has dark liquid on the left side of his brain, it was very apparent that he would have to have surgery.
They rushed him here to Springfield to St. Johns where they did more tests.
The bleeding has been going on and off for about 3 weeks.
Last night was a horrible night for dad, as his symptoms got worse, the pressure in his head was making everything worse.
Since my dad has been on blood thinners for the past 2 months, because of blood clots in his leg and lung from his knee surgery in November, they couldn't do the surgery until today so that they could thicken his blood.
So today around 10:30am, they will drill a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure and blood.
They will also put a filter on his left leg artery to catch any blood clots from going to his lungs!
I am grateful that the Doctors know what they are doing and that they can take care of this problem, I just hope that surgery goes well and that dad is okay.
I am so grateful for my dad in my life and I don't know what I would to without him! Heavenly Father has definitely been keeping an eye on him and keeping him here for all his girls that love him so much! I am a daddy's girl and proud of it!
I can't wait until all of this is over but I am so glad that my dad is a fighter, and even though he hates it, he has been listening to the doctors and doing what they ask!
I will definitely update on all of this after the surgery!