Matthew 16:1-12

Aaron is still fighting and had another good night. Yesterday was another busy day for him. They put in a new central port and changed his dressings again. We couldn't get in to see him very much because they were busy working on him most of the day. It is very hard to see my child in this condition as you can imagine, but one thing that I am so grateful for and have looked upon as a sign from God that he will bring him through this is the fact that his hands and feet have been spared the ravages of this horrific syndrome. Matthew 16:1-12 talks about recognizing the Lords signs and they have been plentiful from the very beginning.

Last night I stopped and got more ink for my printer and printed off a huge stack of e-mails and blog comments to add to the others. Angie went to the hospital early this morning and John and I will head up later today with all of your prayers and well wishes and read them to him.

Again, we can't thank you enough for your encouragement and ask that you continue to pray for Aaron.

All our love,
Sue and family

Care Givers and Other Brothers

Words can not express our gratitude for the loving care that Aaron's girls are receiving from their Nana or that Aidan is receiving from Kay. Nana is Aaron's step Mother and is filling in for Aaron and Angie with Taylor and Riley. It is such a blessing to them to be able to have the peace of knowing that their girls are being cared for by someone that loves them from the bottom of their heart.

Kay has babysat for all the grand's at one point or another and they all adore here. Blake always wants to go to Kay's even when Dana has no need for a babysitter. She is taking wonderful care of Aidan and we are all so grateful to her for stepping in during this difficult time. Aaron's cousin Jill is taking care of Aidan at night now and we are greatful to her for helping out.

We have a big extended family and his other brothers are all praying for Aaron's healing even though they are seperated by distance and we are appreciating their prayers and encouragement. His little other brother Tyler has been here and at his young age has been a huge help to all of us. Thank you Tyler for all your help to Grampa and all of us. He is coming down today with Kyle and we pray for their safe travel on this snowy morning.

Yesterday Aaron had his dressings changed for the first time in two days and the Doctor reported that it looks like the rash has not spread any further. Glory be to the Father! They have put Aaron on a sand bed which is very high tech and apparently something like being on a water bed. Angie asked him if it was comfy and he nodded yes. The bed is able to absorbe moisture and be regulated to cool him when his temperature spikes.

Update

This morning after a good nights sleep might be a good time to provide more information. I pray that God would guide me in communication.

Aaron was first diagnosed with Steven-Johnson syndrome (SJS) which is a little-known disorder which is an extreme allergic reaction usually to a drug. Since being in the hospital they have upgraded his condition to TEN - which is a detachment of more than 30% body surface area (BSA). There is information all over the Internet about both of these conditions so I won't go into any more of a description about the specifics.

This all started when we were all up north over the Christmas break. Aaron developed a sore throat the day before New Years Eve. By NYE he was really hurting so he went to a ready med. type place in Harbor Springs to be checked out. They determined that he had strep throat and gave him a long lasting injection of penicillin and sent him home. Aaron then packed up Taylor, Riley and Aidan and headed home.

He started to feel better for a while but then went down hill again to the point where his local Dr. sent us to the hospital last Wednesday. Miraculously, and I mean really miraculously, the ER Dr. at Midland hospital almost immediately diagnosed Aaron with SJS. We know that God lead us to Midland hospital via his faith filled local Dr. to the ER Dr. in Midland because the Midland ER Dr. had a best friend who had been afflicted with SJS............the chances of having the diagnosis so early are about 1,000,000 to 1 because this is such a rare condition.

With in minutes things were set in motion to locate the best place for treatment which also miraculously came together by the grace of God. Every hospital that had a burn unit around the whole Mid-West was full to capacity and could not take him. Finally Detroit Receiving said that they would take him. As it turns out this is absolutely the best place that he could have come to. They have every specialist needed to support recovery right there under one Detroit Medical Center location.

We are convinced that our primary Dr. lives at the hospital, he has been so diligent. There are dermatologists, eye Doctors and every other kind of support that we need. A friend of our family is on the board of DMC and has provided the family with everything that they can to ease our stay. No one can say for sure and it is a one day at a time situation but we are being given reason to believe that though this will be a long drawn out journey, Aaron can come out of this intact. They are ok with the treatment they are giving him for his vision and working very hard to prevent infection of the skin.

We are so grateful to all of you for your prayers, cards and well wishes and are firmly convinced that your prayers and faith are integral in Aaron's journey. Angie read all of your e-mails to him yesterday so he knows you are all pulling for him. We will take a new batch of them into him today. So many of you have asked what you can do and we really want to ask you all to continue praying at this point.

I am confident that Jesus has my little lamb in the palm of his hands.

Thank you and we love you all with all our hearts.
Hugs and blessings,
Sue and family

Thanks

Aaron had a good day yesterday. They were able to do a major cleaning of his body while he was sidated enough to be as comfortable as possible. He rested well the rest of the day and the report this morning from his nurse was that he had a good night which makes two in a row now.
We have printed out the e-mails that we have received to the point of running out of ink and Angie took them to the hospital with her this morning to read to him.
Well I really need to get going but I so want to thank you all and especially Karen and Andy for bring over a delicious meal to feed us.
Hugs and God bless,
Sue and family

Aaron's Battle Update

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Aaron with his two daughters at Kyle & Carrie's wedding last year.
I'm going to post updates here for all the Saints that are praying so fervently for Aaron. There are no words to express our gratitude for your prayers which from the e-mail's that I have received are going up to heaven from all across the USA and quite possible the world. The way I visualize it is like the opening of the old Christmas movie It's A Wonderful Life where so many people are praying for George Bailey.
Aaron had a busy day yesterday while all the wonderful Doctors and Nurses worked very hard on him. They had to put him on the respirator and getting that regulated was quite a chore. Most of the day we could not get into see him because they were cleaning him up which took a very long time because the burned area now covers almost his entire body except his hands and feet. Today they will take him to the OR to clean him up more because with the respirator in place they are able to sedate him a little more with less chance of his breathing stopping.

The Dr's. and Nurses told us that the progression of what is going on can be viewed as a bell curve. What we are waiting for is for the progression to get to the top of the curve which they tell us has not happened yet.

Before we came home last night, because they make us leave so that the family will be rested, fed and showered to help prevent germs, the Nurse came out and talked to us and explained that he is awake though sedated as much as possible and unable to talk because of the respirator, but that we can bring in cards and pictures to read to him and show him but no flowers. When we got home I printed e-mail prayers, well wishes and blessings that we will take with us today to read to him if we can after the surgery.

We are putting on the full armor of God around here and we are so grateful for all of your support and ask that you continue to pray for Aaron.

Again, thank you, and we will continue to keep you updated here. It has been such a blessing hearing from you all.

Hugs,
Sue

Edited ~Thank you Jenn & Jacqui for providing the It's A Wonderful Life's main characters name of George Bailey. xoxoxoxxo

Praying Hands

Thank you all who have been praying for Aaron. As an update; last night they did not have to put him on a respirator. Thank you prayers.

~Dream Homes & Real Life~

This morning Melissa at The Inspired Room did a post on dream homes that is very thought provoking if you are up for a bit of brain creativity this morning you might want to take a look.

Aaron is sick so I'm at his house trying to get him nursed back to health. Very scary around here. He is having an allergic reaction to penicillin. He has never been allergic to it before.

The house above is a rendition of my favorite dream home style. I like all versions of this style, Georgian, Colonial, Federal, what ever you want to call it, from tiny, perfectly proportioned cottages, to the White House in Washington DC, either in clapboard or sturdy brick. When I can think straighter I'll explain my Father of the Bride style further but for now I'm just asking all of you sweet praying blogger to please pray for Aaron with me. Dream houses and sick kid's, isn't that what life at home is really all about? Thank you God in Jesus name I pray for giving us peace, love and joy even through difficult times.

~Ruffles~

Ever since I was little ruffles were one of my favorite things. Growing up in the 60's didn't allow many opportunities for expression of my ruffle passion, or really any thing very feminine, but now I take every opportunity to celebrate the lovely gift of femininity that God has blessed me with.

These pictures of my ruffled dishes collection were on my file and brought a smile to my face this morning when I was looking for something to write about. I hope they bring a smile to your pretty face as well.

Have a blessed Sunday,
Sue

~ The Pink Living Room ~

These are pictures of our little living room in the front of the house. This room is much less cluttered now but I have to admit that clutter suits me and I'm missing it a bit.


This little room has a southern exposure that lets in the prettiest light at almost all times of the day and allow for the use of this strong color. In a darker room this color would be over whelming but in here it works for me and there is plenty of white and neutral space to rest the eye.

Dana and I painted this room and the dining room on a whim one afternoon and all though it has been fun it may get lightened up a bit in the future. You can see by the bay window where we didn't even paint the beige area around the window but we did do a pretty good job of keeping the hot pink off the white trim don't you think? We choose this color to go with the MacKenzie-Child's lamp in the bay window. This lamp was in my store but I just couldn't part with it when we sold off all of our inventory so it ended up moving down here with me. This girly room is where I sit and read or where Sheryl sleeps when we have a full house and my grand's love to play house and use the coasters as little dishes. The white lamps with rose bud bases are now up in our bedroom and my more formal gold ones with chunky roses are now back in here and now that Christmas is only a memory now the bunny couple will come back up stairs after hibernating in the basement through the fall and early winter. The velvet and needlepoint pillow on the couch, as well as the plaid one on the other end with the needlepoint center medallion were show gifts from the Atlanta Gift Show that Dana & I used to go to twice a year. The top picture shows two green silk pillows that I use for summer but my first love for pillows is needlepoint because it lends such a hand made touch of texture to a room and I love the human touch.


This close up of my junk shop secretary shows some of my favorite things; little enamel boxes, ceramic fruit and vegetables, silky tassels, sparkly crystal, rose bud vases, pretty little books, French wall paper and pink and white roses~~~~~~~~~~

~ Shower Planning ~

One of the very fun things about life at home is the luxury of time. Time to help plan a shower for a lovely young lady and her love is an example of just such a luxury. They are being married this coming St. Valentines Day weekend in Florida so those of us included in the festivities will be traveling to our destination. These Vera Bradley luggage tags will be given to the shower guests as favors at the shower here in Michigan next weekend.

The theme colors for the wedding are navy and fuchia but I couldn't find anything in our price range to match those colors so instead went for a similar high contrasting look in these cute tags.
I hope they like them ~
I just ordered these Stephen Bonanno, Emma Monogram Classic sandals for the bride in navy and fuscha with her soon to be initials. These are in black and fuchsia but give you a good idea of what they will be like. Sweet Vivian just called me to say that they would be able to have them to us in time. These will be perfect especially because the wedding is taking place in Stuart Florida where Bonanno's is located.
Well, it has been fun thinking about sunny Florida on this freezing winter day here, but I better go switch another load of laundry and take some fish out of the freezer to start thawing for dinner. I still need to do my Thursday errands; car wash, cleaners, & the bank but those things just may have to wait until tomorrow.

Take care.
Hugs,
Sue

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy New Years eve and day. In northern Michigan we had an old fashioned snow storm like we haven't seen in years. The fresh snow brought out the skiers in droves.
This is the drive way of the Chalet looking up at the ski hills at 7 am. By 10 am we had cars all the way down here and farther down the road. The ski resorts in the area had record amounts of skiers all during the Christmas week break.
Inside Dana works on the design for the remodel after meeting with the builder who advised us that our original plan was too ambitious.
Uncle Kyle with his ski bunny PJ clad nieces and Sponge Bob nephew.
Above are Carrie and Doug with their snowboards then Kyle, Blake and I on our ski's. Finally, John and I relaxing after a day on the slopes.

We had a great time up north with the family but it is really nice to be home. When you aren't used to a house full of kids it is a bit exhausting even though delightful and so much fun. John is off work today so he will have another day to rest up while I attempt to get unpacked and fluff up the house as well as myself.

Thanks every one for stopping by. As soon as we get settled back in I hope to get around to visiting my blog friends and seeing what every one is up to in 2008. We have a couple of projects here at Greenbrier that need attention and work on the guest house continues along with the Chalet project so it should be a busy year here.

Take care and God bless us all as we start this lovely new year.

xoxo,
Sue

Winter House

Bright and early tomorrow morning we will be heading up north skiing with the family. It is my intention to actually ski but we will see how that goes. Today we did the Costco run for groceries. We will make Rigatoni with meatballs one night, roast turkey another and a beef brisket another. All this will be fixed using the stove top and a roaster since the oven on the stove in our 45 year old Chalet is shot, should be interesting.

We have loved the Chalet that my Dad and his three brothers built in the early 1960's, but it is in desperate need of an update. Dana has the design all figured out on her computer and we will meet with a builder while we are up there to see if her design will work structurally and to get a cost estimate. We are using Charlotte Moss's Winter House as inspiration. It seems like I read somewhere that she sold her house in Aspen but don't know if that is a fact, but I would hate to have let it go if I was her.

A Few Of Us At Christmas

Hope everyone is well and had a merry Christmas. We are back home now and the dishwasher and washing machine are running at full tilt. John went into work and Aaron is asleep on the couch. Why is it that I can't get my boys to go upstairs and get into bed? They love to fall asleep on the couch when they come down here, go figure.

Today CMU is playing Purdue in the Motor City Bowl at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. Later this afternoon John, Aaron and I will head down there to cheer for the Chippewa's of CMU.
Mom and Dad are bringing my nephew and some of his friends down so we will meet up with them and other friends from MP to tail-gate before the big game.

This not putting up any Christmas decorations is working out to be a pretty good deal. When we got home last night the boys unloaded the car for me and I got everything sorted out and put away. John and I opened our presents and we had time after that to watch a movie and pop some popcorn. Today while John catches up at work a bit Aaron and I will get to do a little shopping with our Christmas money and have a nice lunch at Partridge Creek either at PF Chang's or Brio before heading down to the game. It is really nice not having to worry about taking down decorations and just being able to concentrate on enjoying family and friends!

Merry Christmas everyone, from a few of us!
Blessings,
Sue

Merry Christmas!

Mary did you know?

Happy Christmas Eve!

Aaron picked this image to wish you all a happy Christmas Eve!

The Presents Are Wrapped

Yesterday I finished wrapping the presents that we had at the house. Now I would like to crawl back into my cozy bed and relax the rest of the day but no such luck, there is always more to be done, isn't there?
When I took these pictures the dreaded, 'no more room on memory stick', message appeared on my camera. It is probably a blessing because it would have broken my heart to have run out of memory during all the Christmas festivities. So, instead of fretting I'm giving the glory to God for gently reminding me to add getting a new memory stick to my To Do list: finish stocking stuffer's for five boys; one more fun thing for SDIL ;); one more guy thing for TSIL ;); pick up dry cleaning; wash and gas up the car; memory stick from Target, where I hope I can get most of the other things done too; pace around hoping that my LL Bean order, that has several gifts for above mentioned five boys, arrives before we have to leave to go up north to be with family tomorrow at noon; try and save enough time to get a mani & pedi; pick out and lay out clothes for four days of festivities for John and I. John has his company Christmas luncheon today and will go out with the guys after that so I will have a long day to fit everything in, hopefully even the mani & pedi.
Thank you Lord for giving me such a fun To Do list for today and please bless those who's to do list is not so fun. We have all had more of those lists than we like to think about so I'm thanking God for this fun one with all the gratitude I can muster!!!!! All glory and honor is yours dear heavenly Father.
Have a blessed day ladies!

Gift Wrapping Day

Image from Carolyne Roehm's lovely website

Today is gift wrapping day here. The lovely Ms. Roehm was kind enough to post this beautiful collection of wrapped gifts on her website in my colors with even the Greenbrier ~G~ in hot pink included to motivate me to actually get started wrapping gifts. Well she didn't post it just for me but it is there never the less, and a lovely place to find inspiration if any of you need to refill your creative tanks for the last push to Christmas. ~xoxo ~

Praise God!

Four months ago almost to the day my beautiful, only sister laid in a hospital bed expecting to die. The picture above was taken two weeks later at Kyle & Carrie's wedding. This morning she called to let me know that since our conversation near around the end of November when my niece's boyfriend passed away after a long battle with cancer and she called me for comfort, which is rare, but the only comfort I could offer was from Gods word and an invitation to pray the sinners prayer with me and she did. This mornings call was to let me know how much her life has changed and to thank me.
Praise God!

Edit: I just found this in my unpublished posts as I was deleting old unfinished posts and thought I would share it now.
All glory and honor is yours our heavenly Father!!!!!!

Mrs. Claus Apple Doll

The kitchen table set with faded snowman placemats and napkins.
Most of the great room bunnies replaced with Santa's.
My favorite Santa is Mrs. Claus the apple doll that has been in our family since the kids were little. That apple head must really be well preserved to have held up all these years.

Cotton Colors Pottery

Before we had the wall paper up in the kitchen the walls were beige, my least favorite color, so these Cotton Colors Pottery plates lent a pop of color to the bland space under the kitchen cupboards.
Hope every one had a good weekend and is surviving the count down to Christmas.