Stella is growing up so fast. She is 8 months old today! She rolls all over the floor and loves the freedom. Boy is she fast! She is working on crawling, but I wouldn't be surprised if she took after her mommy and only crawled for a few days and then started walking. She loves to walk around with mom or dad's hands for support. She can do it with only one hand, but it still makes her nervous. She can support herself by holding onto the couch and can pull herself up all by herself. All she wants to do now is walk around. When mom gets tired, Stella gets ticked off!

She is eating lots of new foods. She loves sweet potatoes, applesauce, yogurt, Cheerios, graham crackers, and macaroni and cheese. She is on a little bit of an eating strike, but hopefully that will resolve itself.

I love being her mommy and I really enjoy being at home with her. I couldn't even imagine it any other way. John is such a great support and a fabulous daddy. We are very blessed!

We love you guys!

It sure has been a long time since I posted last. Things have been a little hectic around here. I had my surgery on 3/27 and due to a complication I ended up with a spinal headache due to leaking spinal fluid. After 2 blood patches the leak did not resolve and I had to lie FLAT on my back 24/7 for about 2 weeks. Thank you! Thank you! For so many wonderful helpful family and friends. These include but are by no means limited to: My mom, my mother-in-law Jane, Charity, Candice, Dan and Tierney, Becky, Tim, my best girl Angie, neighbors Susan and Chris, Rachel, and of course the best of all my FABULOUS husband. John took the week off to nurse me back to health, wait on me hand and foot, and be the worlds greatest Daddy to little Stella. Stella was so great throughout all of this from the 2 hour wait during the surgery, that took unexpectedly almost 6 hours, to the 2 weeks of mommy being out of commission. She was delightful, patient, and just plain adorable. So was her Daddy!

The dinners, flowers, company, prayers, and well wishes were so helpful. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful support system and such loving people in our lives. I am feeling a lot better and healing nicely. I should be all healed up in a few more weeks. My leg pain had been greatly reduced by the pump and I am so grateful. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! We cannot adequately express our gratitude.

American Millionaire

John and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire last night. The movie was incredibly well done and told a poignant story of two people desperately trying to be together while incredible circumstances keep them apart. Although entertaining, it was more thought provoking. At the close, tears came to my eyes as I thought of the little orphaned children who live in squalor in India. This movie shows the normality of poverty and lack of freedom that exists in other parts of the world...circumstances that we know very little about. As American's most of us have a world view that everyone lives as we do. It is normal that each household has at least one and most likely two cars. That the Jones' must be kept up with, it is appropriate to spend upwards of $5 on a specialty coffee drink, and that owning a home is some kind of right have become normal attitudes in our culture.

I left the movie feeling incredibly grateful and, frankly, more than a little ashamed. How much of my life do I take for granted? A lot. What small things do I spend time and energy whining about? Plenty. What more can I do to become more charitable? Much. Here are some statistics to consider.

Nearly 80% of India lives on half a dollar a day.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL218894

Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

In these days of economic unrest we should all consider what we can live without and what we can afford to give to those in need. Believe me, I am not standing on a soap box. I know that I have not been doing my part and that my family can and will give more. I hope you will too.

Stella is 6 months old!

Our little Stella is 6 months old now. Time goes by so fast. SHE SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT! Bedtime is 8:00 pm and she gets us up at 5:00 am to eat. It is HEAVEN! She scoots along on the ground and seems to be making progress towards sitting by herself and crawling. She is playing with her toys more and more and loves to hear herself scream. It used to be a high pitched, ear bleeding, trill, but is now an "Incredible Hulk" like wail that makes her face turn crimson. Strange little thing isn't she? She loves to laugh...and I mean laugh. Full belly grabbing, rolling on the floor, cackling laughter. Mom will say something as benign as "Yummy" and she will burst out with gale force laughter that makes us all laugh in response.

Stella had been venturing into solid foods, and I have been making my own baby food for her. She has tried squash, peaches, sweet potatoes, pears, banana, rice and oatmeal cereals and green beans.

At her 6 month check-up she weighed 15 lbs and measured 27 1/2 inches. She is in the 40th percentile for weight and off the charts at over 97% for height. That means that less than 3% of babies her age are as tall as she is. We hope that this trend continues and that she gets her mom's height.

We recently made the small trip to see Great-grandpa Ross along with Grandma Ross, Aunt Charity and kids. He seems to be doing really well at 96 years of age and wisdom. It was so great to see him and show him our cute babies.

A few weeks ago Uncle Mike (John's brother)and Aunt Julie visited us from South Carolina and brought all of their kids. It was so great to see them. We miss them very much and were so glad to catch up and see how the kids have grown.

Aunt Holly (John's sister) and family came down from Olympia, Washington last week to visit recently. We got to finally meet Peter who just turned 1. It was a lot of fun to visit with all of them and catch up.

Uncle Andy moved to Burbank, CA recently and we miss seeing him all the time. The good news is that he will be up to visit every 6 weeks or so.

We are doing well all in all. My pain medicine delivery system (aka pain pump) surgery has been pushed back again to 3/28/2009. We are a little frustrated, but are very excited as the trial went so well. For the trial they injected 0.2 mg of morphine directly into my spinal canal. The 12 hours that followed was the most painless that I have experienced in over 7 years. It was blissful and I was giddy! Too bad I had to stay in the hospital for observation...if I had my way I would have taken a long walk with John, Stella, and Frankey.

Can you get my baby to sleep?

Any parents out there with any tips on teaching your baby to sleep? I am afraid that having a stubborn Dad and even more stubborn Mom equals the most stubborn baby in the universe. It took me 3 and a half hours to get Stella to nap today. I was trying to get her down without nursing her to sleep...end result? I ended up nursing her to sleep. I need serious help, and I know when I need to ask for it. A talent I am proud to say I have been developing. Thanks in advance for any smart tips!

Stella Jane is 5 months

Our little Stella Jane is 5 months old now! It is amazing how fast and how slow time moves along. She is such a happy and giggly baby. I have never seen a kid who laughs as much or is as ticklish. That she gets from her Daddy. Luckily for me she is not old enough to uncontrollably flail her elbows and accidentally assault Mommy at the slightest hint of a tickle like her Daddy. Some reflexes are stronger than others.

Stella enjoys putting everything in her mouth and chomping on Mom or Dad's knuckles. She can even put her Binky back in on the off chance that she maneuvers the nipple end towards her face. She is almost sitting unassisted and loves to roll around on the floor with her toys. If only she could master sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time, life would be that much sweeter. All in all, we are doing well.

I have been tapering off of my pain medication in preparation for a pain medicine pump trial which is not the most fun endeavor I have embarked on. It is right up there with going to the dentist every day, paying your taxes, or listening to the media constantly and very thickly lavish praise on a president who has not even done anything yet. If all goes well, the pump will be implanted in my abdomen and a thin flexible tube will run around my side to my spine and deliver pain medicine directly onto my spinal cord. This should provide adequate pain relief with an extremely minimal amount of drugs. It could really change our lives. You can read more about the device here http://www.medtronic.com/our-therapies/drug-pumps/index.htm. I hope to have the trial done within the next few weeks.

Throughout all of this, my unfailingly sweet and generous husband has been taking care of Stella and I. I am extremely grateful for my support network. My mom, mother-in-law (Grandma Jane), my fabulous in-laws (you know who you are), Charity, my friends Amy and Angie, and of course my spectacular husband. I do not know what I did to deserve him, but God blessed me with an incredibly strong, considerate, sweet man. Special thanks to Grandma Jane for helping mold him into the man he is today. He is a wonderful Daddy with a magic touch that can lull Stella to sleep anytime. The patience and the tenacity to keep rocking her until she finally relents and slips off to dreamland is a talent and skill that I only hope to develop.

At times I struggle to be grateful for what I have. I wonder when the pain will relent and a solution will be found. I only have to look toward the wonderful family and friends in my life. I hope to remember this daily...if not hourly (on those days that I really struggle)...in order to more gracefully handle the challenges that chronic pain brings.

I did not intend for this post to be all about me and my ills, but you never know what will spill onto the page. Lots of love to you and yours. I appreciate all of the prayers, support, and well wishes.

Please lend your support to a family who is experiencing struggles that I cannot even comprehend. Please read their story by visiting their page and donate what you can. http://whatcanwedotohelp.blogspot.com/

Let it snow!

Well, we were all snowed in on Christmas. It was very pretty, but there is so much of it! Some of our neighbors needed help to just get out of their driveway in their SUVs and trucks. We had about 18" on Christmas morning, so we did not get out to deliver presents and see Grandma Ross and Charity and her family. It keeps piling up too. Grandma Ross trudged out here with the help of Tim and his Subaru. (Thanks bro!) It was so nice to see them. We had a wonderful Christmas, and we know that we are incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Family and friends who are thoughtful, kind, who make us laugh, and cry (the good crying).

We snuggled up with Stella and lounged around...well, to be honest. Stella and I lounged. Daddy was out shoveling the 18" of snow that our snow blower could not tackle. He is such a sweetheart. Even with his bad back, he trudged out there and shoveled...and shoveled...and shoveled some more. The snow piled up at the end of the drive and it was taller than he is. he shoveled later in the evening and the next day he shoveled some more. His brother Andy came out to help yesterday and we really appreciated that. THANKS ANDY!

Unfortunately, my Grandpa Teeples was rushed to the hospital from Richfield to UVRH via ambulance on 12/24. He has a disease which is a pre-curser to lukemia, and the chemo has been taking its toll. He received some infusions of platelets as he was bleeding internally. He is stable at the moment. Please say a prayer for him.

Merry Christmas!