Loving Life as a Family of 4!!

Hey Everybody! It has been forever I know! We dont have internet at our house just on our phones so updating the blog has been a huge challenge!! We are doing great loving our new life as a family of 4. As most of you know after our sweet boys were born they spent some time in the NICU due to their early arrival. They came home a lot sooner than the doctors anticipated and have been thriving! Bob and I were blessed to have family around for James and Jackson's first 6 weeks of life which was a HUGE help as we adjusted to two babies in the house. We also were incredibly blessed by our church family who provided meals for us for three weeks when our parents left. We are so in love with our beautiful boys and so is Izzy! She is such a little mama to them it is too cute! The boys are doing great and are growing so much!  They will be 8 weeks old Sunday which is crazy to me it seems like them were just born! Currently we are trying to sleep train them so that is proving to be a challenge especially when you have two babies. We know it will be worth it, especially when we can sleep longer than 3 1/2 hour increments. It has amazed me how much our lives have change and how smooth the process has gone to adapting to two babies in the house. I say smooth because I am sure it could be a lot harder. Sometimes thought of what  life must be like with one baby saying parents of one child must have it made (this is usually in a very sleep deprived state when we have two screaming children) but I can not imagine nor do I desire our life any other way. It is a crazy life but wonderful. I have found the key is organization otherwise you wont survive with multiples.  Looking back to last year I could never have imagined that we would be parents to twin boys today but I am so incredibly joyous that God choose to bless and grow our family this way. Bob and I will celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary on Memorial Day time has flown by. I could not have asked for a more wonderful husband or daddy!
Soon we will be making some more transitions at our house. Bob will be quitting his job to stay at home with the boys when I head back to work in June.  To sum it all up our life is crazy as you can imagine but we are doing great and still appreciate your prayers especially as I get ready to head back to work. Don't worry I wasn't going to leave you without pictures :) and hopefully I can blog again soon!

Blood Work

Today has been crazy with errands and getting caught up with things since I have been away for two weeks. Yesterday I went for my routine blood work, which tells whether or not my Coumadin is thinning my blood enough. Last time it was a little low at 1.6, it needs to be between 2-3. So my nurse practitioner called today as said my level was still low it was 1.8. So even with strict diet and increased dose I still am not at the level I should be. So she increased my dose of medicine and we have to go back in 10 days. The good news is other than my levels being low I am doing better! So I will just trust in the Lord, He has brought me this far!

HOME SWEET HOME

I am so happy to be back home in North Carolina. I had a great 2 week visit with my family but I am so happy to back home with my husband. I had great flights, although I was a little nervous about it before hand. I will post all about it as soon when I get my photos uploaded. I am so excited about getting back to my normal life. I will be updating the blog again and have lots of posts from my favorite blogs to catch up on. I went to the doctor today for blood work. Before I left I had lower levels again so hopefully with an increase in my medicine and very careful dieting the level went back up. I will let ya'll know what we find out. It feels great to be back. Dorothy said it best "There is no place like home"

Kitchen Gadgets and Mishaps....

Hello All! So in trying to be the good housewife I have been experimenting in the kitchen a bit. I have discovered that baking from scratch is a lot harder than it looks. Also, it is a good thing I did not have high aspirations to be a gourmet baker over nursing! I really love to cook and love spending time in the kitchen. I love trying new recipes and ideas. I love to cook but I have never really baked. I can make a good pound cake and some pre-packaged cookies but really never really made anything from scratch. so I decided to try my hand at it. A major plus when you get married are the fabulous kitchen gadgets people get you off your registry and lovely gift cards to buy what you want that you didn't get. Well, it has been my dream to own a Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer. I mean it was the first thing I registered for at every store. Now granted it is over $300 so naturally I did not get one as a gift. However, those Belk gift cards began to add up especially after some returns of the duplicates we had received! Lo and behold I had money for my mixer. So I waited it went on sale for $299, then at the end of July Belk had a bridal completion sale, which was an additional 20% off, and on top of that Kitchen Aid has a $40 mail in rebate. So I capitalized on the great deal and purchased my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Deciding on a color was difficult but in the end we went with black because you never know when you will want to change you kitchen color scheme at some point.

Isn't it beautiful

I was overyjoyed with our purchase, now what do I make. I decided now was time to try my hand a baking from scratch. So I went to Bakerrella's blog (because she is AMAZING) and it just so happened she had a recipe for chocolate cookies in a recent post. So I bought the ingredients during our Wal-Mart run and began to make the dough. It seemed easy enough and tasted good too!

So I spray the cookies sheets and proceed to bake 2 dozen cookies.

Well, umm they came out interesting.
#1 They all squished together so it looked like I made a cookie cake
#2 They were VERY thin
#3 The fell apart into crumbles even when cool
#4 My husbands critique was "They taste like fried dough" but of course he ate the majority of the cookie crumbles
So alas my made from scratch cookie efforts were a bust, but I did love making them so I will try again. In addition to the newly acquired kitchen aid mixer we made a few other gift card purchases. This included a Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker. It is the size of our microwave and came with 80 different recipes for bread and it makes jam.
I have not given this a try but intend to try but intend to soon with my hubby so I will blog about when it is done and I hope it will be a better experience than the cookie crumbles. so keep your fingers crossed :)

A little update on me: My blood results were the same as last week a little low so i go back at the end of this week to recheck it. Other than that I am enjoying not being on bed rest and finally getting to know the area we live in. I can even get around a little without Maggie (our GPS). Through all of this God has been so faithful!! He deserves all honor and glory!!!

Replacing The What Ifs....

First an update. I went to the doctor Wednesday. I got a great report I am allowed to increase my activity and it looks like the surgery consult is off the table. What a great God I serve; He is mighty to heal. I got my lab results back yesterday they were low which means we have to increase the blood thinners again and come back in 10 days. Overall things are improving, one day at a time. TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY! Now let me switch gears. I am just so excited about what the Lord is teaching me and wanted to share some of it. I love that His word brings a fresh word everyday. I find so much comfort and joy between the pages as it breathes life in me. Through my bible study I am learning a lot about things I dwell/meditate on. When it comes to what consumes my thoughts and heart number one would be my worries. When I say worries I mean the "what if's". "What if's" flood my day and take me captive over and over again. I find myself facing these daily, hourly and sometimes minutely such as: what if we cant pay our bills, what if I cant take my NCLEX for 2+ months, what if I can't get a job, and what if I never get better or what if it comes back? Let me tell you I can worry with the best of them. However, I found out that my "what if's" and worries had put me in a prison and like weeds they were choking the life out of me. In God's Word I found that He warns against dwelling on my worries, my "what if's", and every anxious thought. These things which I dwell on throughout my day were throwing me into a downward spiral of despair, just like Satan wanted. You see I allowed the evil one to control my mind, to encourage my "what ifs", and lost focus of Truth. Truth that replaces my "what if" with "what is". Truth that says He is Faithful and Provider. In Christ and Truth we find liberty. Instead of dwelling on my "what ifs" I am learning to place my thoughts in a new direction by dwelling on "what is" such as in Philippians 4:8. It tells me exactly what I should meditate on. It says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." I must replace my what if's with truth and this truth comes from His word. You know the Lord knows our hearts and hears our every thought. He knows when the "what ifs" flood our day. He says cast your cares upon Him because He loves you (1 Peter 5:7). This week I especially found comfort in this verse-
"When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul." Psalms 94:19
My "What is" is His truth, which He reveals in His word. They are things such as His timing is perfect, He never gives us more than we can handle, He knows our every need, and He is faithful. I am finding the more I learn and memorize scripture that when the "what if's" creep in I am able to repeat His promises("what is"). Take heart, don't let the "what if's" take control. Be encouraged no matter what you are going through He is by your side. "Behold, I with you ALWAYS" Matthew 28:20. The video below is of Tenth Avenue North: By Your Side. Listen to the words and be refreshed in His love for you.

Outing...

"Lord,You are good and Your mercy endureth forever"
Today my sweet husband was off work. It was so much fun to spend time with him, especially since he has to work so much lately. I have been dying to get out of the apartment and since I have had some pretty good improvement in my ability to walk we went out for a bit. It was nice to get out and not over do it. We first went to Belk to return the last duplicates of our wedding gifts. Then Bob and I went to eat dinner at The Remington Grill. It was nice to eat out. The Remington Grill had great food, it was a western grill with yummy hamburgers and chicken fingers. After dinner we went to Target for just a bit and got chairs and a table for our back porch. By the way it pays to wait till July, Target's outside/patio furniture is 75% off!!! So if you need some check it out! We then went home and I propped up my leg. I am happy to report NO PAIN!! God is so good!! If you are wondering like my Nana, I kept my leg propped up in the car and while we were eating during our outing. I was overjoyed about the success of our little outing. After we got home Bob put together the 3-tier shelf on our screened in porch and arranged our new table and chairs. Now I am excited that we finally have furniture on our the porch. Also, our apartment smells wonderful since we made brownies, such a great way to end the day. Today was simply wonderful!!! God has been so good, I can't stop singing His praise!! I PRAISE GOD for such an amazing husband and improvement. Thank you again for the cards and prayers. We will go to the doctor the beginning of next week for more blood work. Please pray this test maintains within normal range and that the improvement continues! Be encouraged God is so good and faithful!!

This is a picture from when we got home tonight.

Quote at the beginning of the blog is from the song"You Are Good"

To God be the Glory and Praise...

Psalm 34:8: O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who trusts in Him"
So I have been meaning to write this post the past few days. God has been so good. Let me start with some great news. Last Friday I had blood work drawn to check my bleeding time based on my blood thinner. The previous results have been erratic. Although I had to wait till Tuesday my results came back in normal range!! Hallelujah! As is if this is not good enough news I am finally able to move around better and with little or no pain. As far as the pain, God has been so great, I am pretty much pain free and only taking one pain pill a day if that. This is a major improvement from a pill every four hours. I just want to thank everyone again for all the prayers and encouragement. I am so happy to finally be making progress though the journey is not over. I go back to the doctor next week to see how I am progressing and to check my blood work again. I am asking for your continued prayers that the blood work maintains normal and I continue to heal. Throughout all of this God has shown Himself to be faithful as He declares in His word. I am also thankful for this trial. I have learned so much about faith and to trust in Him even when the outcome unseen. I just praise Him for all He has done, to Him be all the glory. I am attaching a video to this post, which is a first for me. First of all if you know me you know I love to sing His praises and sing praise to Him. One of my favorite songs is "Lord, Your Holy". I first heard this song a few years ago at the church I attended back home in Albany, GA. A very talented worshiper, Renee Jewel, sang it. It made a huge impression on me. The lyrics were so powerful and moving. It is a song that expresses so much praise, adoration and thanks to a such a Holy Lord. I love especially how it declares the characteristics of God. Here are a few of those lyrics from the song.
"Wonderful, Glorious, Holy, Righteous,Victorious, Conqueror, Triumphant and
Mighty, Healer, Deliverer, Shield and Defense, Strong Tower and My Best Friend, Omnipotent, Omnipresent,Soon Coming King, Alpha, Omega, Lord of everything, holy, holy, holy is Your Name."
What an Awesome God!!! The version of the song below is sung by The Prestonwood Choir. They are simply wonderful,the Lord has gifted them with many talented worshipers. Enjoy it and praise Him in your trials. He is a great and mighty God, be encouraged!

Trusting Him...

I just wanted to update you guys on what is going on so you can pray more specifically for us. I went to the doctor yesterday for my blood work. The doctor was very concerned because my blood levels on coumadin are still erratic and not at the desired level. Also, this is week three and I have made little improvement, I can hardly walk. So yesterday afternoon they called and want Bob and I to think about a Vascular Surgery Consult. They do not know if another clot has formed but they are concerned about the lack of blood flow going to my leg as well as the slowness of the healing process. Another thing is that the pain is the major issue for me but the medicines do not work effectively because it is a blood flow issue. They now believe the type of pain medicines I am on are affecting my blood levels and slowing my liver so they are giving me a new prescription for something different. Ends up today the FDA announced that they want to pull the two pain medicines I was on. So now I am on Ultram for pain which seems to be working well. Last night the pain was awful, as I could not take any pain medicine, and I didn't get much sleep, sadly neither did my poor husband. Bob and I are praying about what to do next and we ask that you join us in this. I truly do not desire to have surgery but I want to do what is best for my health. It is very difficult financially to make this decision especially since I am without health insurance. I know that the Lord is in control and will provide but this is a very difficult time for us. Yesterday was our one month anniversary and I must say this was not how I thought our marriage would begin but we are taking on this storm head on. We are trusting in Him to guide us, for He is faithful and takes care of our every need. We truly are learning to live out our vows and a marriage of three with God as our center. The devil is attacking from every angle and it seems discouragement is around every corner. However, I choose to lean on Him even when I want to give up. The prayers, cards, and calls have been such and encouragement, thank you so much. I will trust in Him, the great physician, to heal me of the clot. I was listening to Kari Jobe in my iTunes this morning for some encouragement and the song Healer stuck out to me. Below you will find the lyrics. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we trust in Him to guide our steps.

Be encouraged as I was:

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe You're my healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You're my portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus, You're all I need

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe You're my healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You're my portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus, You're all I need

Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You

(Kari Jobe: Healer)

Mission Accomplished.....

Today was my first day out of the house without having doctor's visit planned. Bob made fun of me because I was just so excited to go on a car ride. I was so happy to see something other than my lovely apartment's walls. I was also very excited because my hubby was off work today so it was nice to sleep in and relax with him this morning. We went out on a mission today. The mission was the hunt for the perfect recliner. Thankfully the first store we went to had the perfect brown leather recliner, although I must say it was alot of fun testing out the other recliners! After this we went to Lifeway to get my new bible study book. I am doing a study with Beth Moore this summer through her Living Proof Ministries blog. It is so exciting, I will be joining over 1000 women online from all over the country studying God's word as we learn to see ourselves as God sees us. The book is called "Me, Myself and Lies" by Jennifer Rothschild. I am really excited to get started! I am so happy to report that there was no pain or increase in swelling from the outing today! God is so good. So, I call that a very successful mission. My husband is accomplishing the mission and lovely task of cleaning up our apartment since we are having company over for dinner tomorrow night. He is so sweet and amazing! I am truly blessed! Speaking of blessed, my grandmother, who I affectionately call Nan or Nana, is currently recovering from eye surgery that she had yesterday. The surgery was to fix a cavernous fistula in the blood vessels of her eye. After a very long and tedious process the surgery was deemed a success. She is still in the hospital but doing well. So just another thing to praise the Lord for. He has been so faithful! Well this day full of accomplished tasks has worn me out so goodnight!