Thanks for sharing. When trajedy strikes it's often dfficlt to taabout, but by sharing it helps to ease your mind and lighten the load. Often when someone is in distress, they will put on a brave front and not reveal their inner thoughts. Remember the good times you shared . Kristene

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. Well it is Sunday and we got through the reunion all right. Actually it went great. We had 12 classmates out of 42 show up and 25 little kids. My folks rushed home and were there late Friday night and the girls stayed at my sisters that night. My folks put up 2 pools and also got one of those giant little tykes water slides that inflate. People showed up around 1:30 and stayed until after 8. We all had so much fun, 2 of my sisters came over and helped out with the kids, they had fun on the water slide and pools, my dad got one of the horses out and they had pony rides, he also had his full sized popcorn maker going and they ate tons of popcorn and we also had popsicles and watermelon to cool off. I made too much food as usual and my mil made several salads, we just grilled out hotdogs and had a lot of fun. Those that wanted to had brought beer so we just sat around talking about the high school days and comaparing current notes. I can tell you it was a blast and took my mind off dh. He did come down and had fun too. We go see the surgeon on Tuesday and see what he has to say. I think he is planning on doing more tests and another CT scan. They got his pain under control. They think that it was a combo of the gall stones and they discovered an infection in his intestinal area so put him on iv antibiotics. His blood sugar has really dropped since Friday and we are working on getting it under control. The Dr. thinks that the gall stones and infection brought out the diabetes. She is positive about it and that with diet, exercise, cutting out sugar and oral meds that we can get things under control. They won't do anything about the gallsones and hernia until the diabetes is under control. All in all it really has been a long week but in a way I am glad that it happened. DH hasn't had a physical in 11 years and is overweight. While there I asked Dr. to do a full work up on him and am curious to see what his cholestoral is. The hardest thing is that he really isn't a fruit or veggie person. I am sure you know that between the kids and I most of our diet is veggies and fruits and meat is a side dish. Right now his blood sugar has been staying around 180 which is in the high range of what the diabetes consultant wants but is way better than what it was before. Now to try and catch up on my sleep, we are also in the processes of moving the girls and Hayden down stairs and had carpet put down on Friday so the house has stuff every where. My mom is going to come up on Tuesday and stay a couple of days to help me catch up. With me being pregnant and Dan's hernia the furniture moving will have to wait until we get some family to come up and help move things around our 2 story house. Again thanks for the support and love, Stacie girlsingardens

I also believe you should go see her. Five years ago, when my 29 year old niece was dying, she called in all of her family and friends one-by-one to say goodbye. It was so hard for us but it gave her strength and closure. She was such a rock of strength for all of us - we had to keep our minds together to be there for her and to match her incredible strength. My 2 youngest got some great advice - finish high school, keep on being the good clean kids you always have been, go on and have a good life. They keenly remember her words to this day and will always remember. She reminded me of many things, especially the days when she was little and we used to play Atari games. She told me whenever I walk past a blank monitor or TV screen, she'll be playing Atari with me from heaven. I'll never forget that. Okay, I'm crying again just remembering my darling baby niece. My oldest was going to wait to visit until her funeral, but I told her to forget the funeral, her cousin needed to see her while still alive so DD#1 drove for a whole day to come back to visit. Her eyes were so red from crying the whole drive back. DN told DD that she was full of sh## for bawling and to knock it off! I was 15 when my niece was born and she was my "heart" child, more like my own child even though I have 4 of my own. Maybe your friend Donna needs to say goodbye too. Prayers and best thoughts to Donna, her family, and all of you who love her.

TOTALLY agree with Lascatx, you really are a saint, Beverly!!! This weekend I will put pen to paper and get everything mapped out, down to the inch. Liking the idea of a pocket door! I'm sooooo thrilled I am one step closer to having a powder room and *gasp* a walk-in pantry! I never would have thought I would be able to have them! The 32" door would be positively luxurious! In this little house, all of our bedroom doors are, I believe, 30" and our main bathroom door is only 28, lol. So, I wouldn't mind going a little bit smaller to save an inch or two for the sake of keeping with the rest of the house, but we will see! Loving the idea of a pocket door, too! Btw, Ogoopogo, BEAUTIFUL powder room! I didn't even notice the doggie toys until you said something! The good news about all this is I have time to figure furniture out -- whether we combine all functions into the back or commandeer the front as useful space. None of those changes are necessarily permanent (save for the eventual lighting) but I can play musical rooms to my hearts content once the kitchen/pantry/pr is done. Next step for me is putting together a layout of said kit-pan-der room (giggle), but I'll do that on the kitchen forum -- if y'all are curious to see how it evolves, please feel free to stop on by!!!! And again, apologies for the REALLLLLY long initial post! I hope I didn't give anybody a headache =(