Frankie's Caring Bridge Site

Here's baby Frankie's caringbridge site if you want to track his progress.

More Need for Prayers

I'm sorry to be on the downer note again, I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but my friend "Fred" (Meg Roth) need your prayers again. Most of you know that Fred and her husband Will lost their daughter Tori a few years back. They gave birth to a son this weekend and all seemed ok, but then the doctors found a heart murmur and little Frankie has a hole in heart that will need to be repaired surgically:( And as if that isn't bad enough, they were due to close on their house next weekend. I just don';t even know where to start. Pray for patience, pray for strength for the family and little Frankie, and pray that the docs fix the little guy and all goes smoothly. I think this is a somewhat common thing in babies, but it's very scary!

An update on my grandpa...his kidneys are still not functioning well. He needs to decide about dialysis I guess, there are risks and benefits, so we'll see what they decide to do. But he may be going home today? Pray for patience there too:)

Honestly, it's been a rough week. If y'all might pray for me too, I'd appreciate it. I just can't believe all this about little Frankie...Anyone have some good news? I could use it! (and I know none of this is about me...I appologize for the rant, but it's been crazy around here and I'm a bit frazzled!)

(Ok, I'm a little calmer now...I revised the earlier rant...)

Surprise!

We had a big surprise waiting for us when we went to go check on Grandpa Mark yesterday. Check out Riley's new wheels!

NOTE: Thanks, Meg for posting about the hat, I should also mention the "driving hat" came from Great Aunt Pammy and it's from PARIS! She bought Roo a hat in every country she went to on her recent trip to Europe! Thanks Grandma Linda for the Car and Pammy for the hats!!!

Mustang Riley!

Daddy's Girl

This is Riley's first time on the ice, last Saturday. They don't make skates small enough or she would have been skating instead of sliding "boot hockey" style. Daddy was so proud:)

Riley Rides a Pony

It's About Time!

I know I promised photos of the Hennepin County Fair a long time ago, but it's been a little crazy around here. So here are some happy posts with pictures! Riley went on a pony ride at the fair, I think Grandma had more fun than Riley did....Roo takes after her mommy, NO COWS! And checks out the goats with Auntie Jessie.

TIGF -With Updates

This week I am very thankful that Mark is home and recovering well from a pretty scary medical week. I'm thankful too that my grandpa seems to be doing ok (still not great, but maybe a little better) and hopeful that things improve more. He has function in his left hand again and I guess they are calling the left side weakness and coordination issues a stroke, although I don't know what test confirmed that. I'm a little short on real details except that his doctor thinks he's improving at least a little. Every little improvement works for me!

P.S. if you want something more lighthearted than the blog has been this week. Check out the Bartsch Blog on the right (sorry, I'm too lazy to link it directly) My nephew has had some interesting nap time adventures this week:)

Morning Grandpa Update

As of last night, the most updated info I have is this. Grandpa's kidneys are functioning at 15% and while that sounds awful, normal range for a man his age is about 35% so it's low, but not as low as it sounds. They would do dialysis if it was between 5-10% so he's still not as bad as he could be. They are going to be giving him fluids thinking part of this might be that he's dehydrated. I haven't heard if they gave him the transfusion yet or not. They are still checking him for anything like a bladder infection that might be causing some of the other symptoms and still trying to determine the cause for his left side weakness. I'll call my parents in a while to check in, but that's the latest right now.

Mark, as far as I know, is still at home and doing well. Josh talked to him right before bed last night and he slept a good part of yesterday, but he's doing much better. He even walked the stairs to the main level of their house pretty much by himself. Still has a slight headache, which is to be expected and some numbness around the incision, but that is also normal.

Afternoon update

Mark is home from the hospital!!!! YEAH!!!! One less hospital. He's doing well, gaining some strength and mobility in his weaker side too...All things moving in the right direction. Now he just needs to be scanned head to toe for more possible aneurisms so they know where they are in the future. No surprises.

Grandpa is not doing as well. I went to visit him today and he's not as confused and disoriented as he has been the last two days, but his kidneys are not functioning well and his blood is too thin. They are waiting for a kidney specialist to figure out that problem and then he will be getting a transfusion to try to solve the blood thinning issues. He's been waiting all day and as of 2:30 he hadn't need the kidney guy....I hate hospitals! If he needs medical help, where is it when he needs it???? Grandpa has also lost some left side coordination both in his hands and legs...similar to stroke symptoms but so far tests are coming back negative for stroke. He is doing therapy for those symptoms. He is talkative and was happy to see the kids, but medically he's a mess!

Prayers are still needed for both, but if you need to direct extra attention my grandpa could use it most! Thanks so much everyone for checking in!

Morning Update

Here's the plan for the day. josh has already left to go take his mom up to the hospital to see his dad. The idea yesterday was that h would go home today if everything went well during the night. It seemed when we left last night that he was starting to get some strength back in his right side and that he was feeling better as the night progressed. So if all goes well this morning he should be home by this afternoon.

I haven't spoken to anyone from my family yet this morning as it's still pretty early to call, but the results from the cat scan last night were negative for signs of a stroke so they will be running more tests this morning. Grandpa doesn't have a lot of control in his fingers...can't pick stuff up that's in front of him or touch his nose on command, that kind of thing...if it wasn't a stroke, I'm not sure what that means, but they will be checking that stuff today. I will probably not have my cell on again today, but I might have a better time getting away to check it at this hospital, so if you need to get ahold of me try my cell and forgive me if it takes a while for me to get back to you...I'll do my best!

Bad news, Good news

I'll start with the good news. Mark's surgery went well. They did discover that he had an aneurism just below the blockage and they had to repair that too. The family has a history of aneurisms, but they didn't know about this one so it was a bit of a shock, but thankfully it was a small one and the fix was still done within the 1.5-2 hour time frame that they had planned. He's still a little weaker on his right side, but the doctor doesn't seem too concerned by this, he said he may need a little rehab, but it's to be expected with the kind of stroke and surgery he has had.

Mark is a little disoriented from the pain meds, but he's in good spirits and joking a lot with everyone. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update, and that my cell phone was turned off, but he is on a cardio-unit and cell phones aren't allowed anywhere near the area (mess with the heart monitors)...I would have had to have gone outside to make calls but that place is a bit of a maze and I didn't know if I could find my way back alone. Thanks for being patient, I know you were expecting updates sooner.

The bad news is that my grandpa is STILL in the hospital and what was supposed to be a quick treatable thing has kinda gone downhill from there. They are waiting for results from a cat scan to see if he may have had a stroke while he was there. I guess he was a little disoriented last night and he continued to be that way this morning and had some weakness on one side. I don't know more than that because I've been up with the Schusters all day. Tomorrow I'll go see Grandpa and maybe have a better idea of what's going on...Keep up the prayers for both please! Yikes!!! Stop eating cholesterol people!

Good News, Bad news

So my Grandpa seems to be getting out of the hospital tomorrow and it was nothing to do with the previous surgery that he had. It would appear that he has something that is treatable, but not spellable:)

My Father-In-Law however is going in tomorrow afternoon for surgery on the artery blockage. It's a short procedure to clean out the build-up and then he will be in the hospital a few days to recover and should be home by Thursday or Friday. Please pray for a safe and effective procedure tomorrow afternoon and for patience by the patient;) He's not good at being cooped up and can't wait to get home. Still no work on the other heart related issue, but I'm sure we will know more about that tomorrow morning before the surgery. (sigh) Not a huge fan of the hospital he's at right now...a lot of hurry up and wait. The good news is his surgeon is coming from Abbott, which is known for it's surgeons in this area, and his brothers have had procedures done at Abbott, so all should go well at least with that avenue.

We're greatful for all of you who are checking in, I'll try to keep y'all updated.

Lousy Weekend

I know my Father-in Law isn't going to like that I posted this, but oh well...We've had a rather interesting weekend. I know I planned on posting pictures from the County Fair on Friday and those will still come but yesterday Mark was admitted to the hospital after having what appears to be a small stroke and found out that he has 70% blockage in his coratid (sp?) arteries and had a pin-size spot on the back left part of his brain that controls sight...he never had any symptoms from that but he had numbness from the artery thing which is what got him to the hospital in the first place. We are still waiting for doctors to determine a course of action so we spent some time visiting, but he's been resting most of the afternoon. Then I found out that this evening my grandpa was taken to another area hospital and they are waiting to do an MRI on him later tonight. I won't have any more info than that until tomorrow, but it may be related to a surgery he had a few years back...or it may be nothing related. So please, we need some extra prayers in the Schuster/Cooley houses tonight. And I apologize if my blogging about this upsets anyone, but I'm having a rough weekend...needed to get it out there.

TIGF

Today is the official start of Summer. Need I say more?

Gone Country

Here's an entertaining thought for y'all. Today I'm going to be a judge for a 4-H competition at the Hennepin County Fair. Not quite sure how I qualify, but my sister-in-law, Jessie, assures me I'm perfect for the job. She's very involved in the 4-H thing and I've always been very proud of her working with the kids and doing her 4-H stuff and she's involved in booking the judges for some of these competitions...but really I think she was desperate:) I guess I'm judging the oral presentations....hmmmm...I am told I will learn all kinds of fun stuff, like how to properly wrap a horse's ankles! And can ya believe I'm a nervous wreck about it? I've never done anything like this before. Wish me luck! I'll post pictures from the fair later. Linda (Josh's mom) and Pam (Josh's aunt) are watching Riley while I "work" so hopefully they will get to see some of the animals and other fun stuff!

Free Bulb Recycling

I know I mentioned this before, but it's a new program that will make it easier to recycle those energy-saving light bulbs. They HAVE to be recycled because of the mercury content.

From my Living Green 365 newsletter:
Recyling compact fluorescent light blubs (CFLs) has never been easier! You can recycle your CFL bulbs for FREE at any Mendards store begining Monday, June 16.

Back to Work

We've had a few Tuesday's off of our normal watching the kiddos while Katie and Mom golf, but this week was back to the norm. We had the kids all dressed in their "bibs" as we call them...most people probably call the overalls or something like that. Here's some of the fun we had this week, we even got a good one of all 3 kids! I call the second picture "Auntie Meg, what doing?" It's Zack's favorite question these days. Macy is Meg's dog and my parents are puppy sitting so she was there this week too!

Fathers Day Recap

Ok, so most of the posts this week I scheduled a while ago cuz we had a lot of stuff from the trip and I didn't want them all to post in one day. So I'm a little behind in posting Father's Day pics. We celebrate FD every year at our house, Hawaiian style. Here's some pics of the kids and my grandparents showing off their Luau Dress and of the Schusters hanging loose. Thankfully we had another somewhat nice day so we could do most of our entertaining outside. We opened presents inside and it gets a little crowded with all the kids running around:) Next year, I think we'll make better use of our downstairs level!

Monkeys Jumpin'

The weather was kinda lousy while we were Up North so the Monkeys kept busy inside.

Bobber in the Sky!

Ok, we've been home for how many days now? Riley is still looking for the "Bobber in the Sky"...which is what the kids call the water tower in Pequot Lakes. The whole drive home until Riley fell asleep she wanted to see it and now every time she's in the car she's looking for the "bobber in the sky" ..."Bobber what are you?" Which means "where" are you....Today she said "Pequot come and see us? Bobber come and see Riley?" So now I told her I'd find a picture and she keeps wanting to see the picture!!! Who knew?

Fishin' in Ox Lake

This was Zack's first fishing trip! He got his own pole when he turned 2 about 2 weeks ago and he caugt I think 4 fish while we were up there. The first pic is Zack's first fish. Then pics of the dads on the dock and my dad's crappy that was as big as D's bass.

More from the Trip

Here's some random shots. Proof that Zack sits for pictures (you have to put food in front of him) Uncle D reading stories and playing pool. There's a story about the fish stained glass, ask me if you want to know about it. It's a long story:) I also had some pics of Katie opening presents for her b-day but Mom and Katie were both in their jammies and I'm sure Mom would kill me if I posted that!

Big Bubbles!

My dad bought this bubble contraption a few years ago before the kids were old enough to understand it, but he anticipated great things. Last year he brought it up to Lake Hubert, but the kids weren't really old enough yet. This year he got some good reaction! I think by Hubert later this summer it will only get better! Here's Some "Big Bubbles!"

Crosslake Adventures - Playtime

Here's a few shots from this week's trip Up North. I'll call these our play time photos. There was some Sight Seeing (Babe the Bluegill - This is an attraction in the Brainerd Area similar to the Snoopy Statues in the Twin Cities a few years back), Some Dress-Up and some Chalk "Coloring" for the kids and Papa blew some "Big Bubbles!" (video to come)

We're Back!

Ok, we're back from our trip...I'll post pics ASAP. We're hosting Father's Day here tomorrow and we've got a lot of cleaning to do:) TTFN (Oh, and we might not be back EXACTLY when this posts. I scheduled this post. We're back sometime today...Meg, call my cell if I'm not answering at home!)

TIGF

TIGF
In honor of Father’s Day, and not to be outdone by Mom’s Day, I’m thankful for my dad: my coach and my friend:)

I’m very lucky to have the family that I have...I wouldn’t be who I am today without all of you. Dad...Coach...Thanks!!! I love you:)

PS ~ Happy Friday the 13th!

Random Favorite Picture

This is for all you fans out there who only check the site for pictures of Riley. (Linda! Pammy, etc.) This is my all-time favorite picture of Roo. She was 5 months old in this picture. She's now almost 20 months...Yikes it goes fast!

Also, Happy Anniversary Katherine and Jason!

Blog Reminder

Don’t forget you can always subscribe on the right hand side and then you don’t have to remember to check in. It’s super easy. You type in your e-mail address and hit subscribe. If I post something, you get an e-mail with the post right in it so you only have to visit the blog if you want to post a comment!

You can also post my blog address on your google reader or RSS (I think?) if you have that set up and it will update when I post.

Happy Birthday to my Grandpa C and Aimee!!!

Happy Birthday Katie

My VERY MUCH OLDER sister has a b-day today! We're up in Crosslake to celebrate the big day so pictures will be coming at a later date! Happy Birthday KT!

Ghost Blogging

I'm going to be away for a few days(don't worry, Mom, my neighbor who is a cop will be watching the house and I won't publish travel dates so people won't know WHEN I'm gone!). I'm scheduling some posts so my faithful readers have something to look at (all 3 of you!). Today I thought I'd share with you a few of the blogs I check on a regular basis. They are always posted on the right side of this page, but in case you never stray from the daily post, here's your chance to wander a little:)

Homemade by Jill is a crafting site, mostly sewing stuff, but some baking and other paper craft stuff too

Cheap But Not Easy is a local girl who is trying to live well without buying anything over $20. Lots of "frugal" tips and sales/deals and how to save money.

And while I'm visiting that site, I click on Sisterly Savings, which also offers deals of the week, etc. and often FREE stuff:)

There, that should keep you busy for a while. Also, don't forget you can always check out the sites of my friends who have businesses. Those are posted down on the right too...

TIGF

Family Vacations! We have two schedule with my family this summer because of an auction we bid on two years ago, normally it's just Lake Hubert which we all love even if it doesn't have AC. This year we're also going to Ox Lake...Josh has it all mapped out for fishing! I guess we're off to catch Northern this week...And Hubert is all about the Bass, although we have had some Walleye and Northern too...We're still in the planning stages for the Schuster Family Vaca, but there's talk of visiting Sunny AZ in January:) YEAH!!!!

Riley's Endorsement

Riley has made her political choice. We were watching the news this morning and she has now decided who she likes for President. She felt the need to tell her babies about it and I caught it on tape. She was talking about "Rock Obama" all morning!

Disclaimer: While the views of this child do in fact represent the political leanings of her mother, the topic of conversation at home does not center around politics so I have no idea how she came to this decision;)

New Version....

Ok, so today is my normal day to watch Zack, but Katie's in-laws are in town so they are playing with the kiddo today, so instead of news about the crazy kids, here's Riley's new version of an old classic...."Tinkle Star, I wonder what are..." That's it...then it's "Mommy, sing it?"....Her ABC's are also quite entertaining as well as "Bitsy Spider" and "Tiny Teapot"...but I'll try to capture those later on video...

Sunday...

I was going to start that with Sunday, Bloody Sunday, but I think only a few people would have gotten the U2 reference and I didn't want anyone to think there was actual blood involved:) We had a very productive day today. We cleaned our garage while Riley took a 3 1/2 hour nap...Riley never takes naps that long! Then we went for a bike ride, made dinner, watered the garden mowed the lawn and went for a long walk. I'm sweaty, dirty and exhausted:) Did I mention I bought a new bike!?!? I LOVE my new bike! It makes hill a breeze and I don't even mind going over the pedestrian bridge that crosses 169! Yup, a bike that makes heights more liveable:) It ROCKS! That's it for today...I'm going to hit the shower! Yeah for 80 degrees and sunny, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!