Prayers Needed

Dear blog world - filled of strangers, friends, and family;

Tonight I am asking all of you to keep my cousin and his sweet family in your prayers. I am going to copy and paste the latest e-mail update - without too many personal details in order to keep identities private. Please note at the bottom how even in this difficult time my cousin is remaining faithful to our mighty God. We all know that with prayer and God anything is possible. I will update when I am updated. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

I hope this finds you all well and have a great
weekend. This is the latest update thought Friday 8-26-2011.
We met with Doctors on Monday and Thursday to receive the facts and a
schedule. The cancer is Transitional Cell Carcinoma and the PET scan show
more cancer than we thought and that it has spread to my lymph nodes. No surgery is planned. "V" and I are meeting Monday with the Oncology team to
become educated on the chemo treatments. We are hoping to get an Infuse port
installed this week so I can start the Chemo treatments on Tuesday 9-6.I am
desperately trying to get the pain regulated and am not having much success
though tonight. Please continue to pray for me and my girls as this is what I
am counting on for success .
I know that God is in control and I live knowing
that his grace is sufficient for me .

Do your best
Prepare for
the worse
Then trust GOD to bring Victory .
Proverbs 21:30 The
Message

Trip to Charlotte, NC

This weekend we took an extended weekend trip to Charlotte, NC where John's sister and her husband live. We had such an amazing time! John was off on Thursday and I worked a half day so we left around 4PM, after I had Heidi's new big girl car seat inspected.

*side note - did you know that 7 out of 10 kids buckled in seats are not buckled properly? Food for thought...

Heidi did such a wonderful job on the trip up there! At least until the last 1 minutes, but it was bedtime and she can get cranky near bedtime if we are not in her routine. Charlotte had received some nasty storms and Rebecca and David had lost power around 5PM. We arrived around 8 and the power was still not on, but we had flashlights and Heidi entertained us with some scary ghost stories. David's parents arrived about 15 minutes before us and all of us sat and chatted for a bit. Later than Heidi's normal bedtime I finally took her up to our room and she went to sleep. The power ended up coming on around 4:45AM. I woke up at about 5 after 5AM freezing because the air had come on and I was not under the covers :) So I got up and closed all the windows and snuggled under the covers.
Friday we woke up and had a delicious breakfast and decided to head to the Lazy 5 Ranch where we had the most amazing time. We went and visited a few of the animals and then took a "hayride" through the park to feed all of the animals. {You also have the option to drive your car}. The ranch had all sorts of animals - sheep, goats, deer, zebras, a rhino, giraffes, ostriches, birds, kangaroos - and probably more! Heidi {as well as everyone else!!} just loved every bit of the hayride; she was captivated the entire time.

We ended up leaving later than anticipated {later than Heidi's nap time} and headed to Chic-fil-a for some lunch. It was unbelievable how wonderful Heidi was - considering she didn't have a nap. The last 5 minutes of the trip back to the Cooper's Heidi fell asleep. When we got to the house I took her upstairs and we napped. After nap time we enjoyed a "friendly" game of Rumi where David's father threatened to break my arms off :) and then we had delicious hamburgers and hotdogs off the grill. Once our bellies were full we went to the pool in the neighborhood for a little swim. When we finished at the pool we put Miss Heidi to bed and then we went to bed shortly afterwards.

Saturday we woke up and went out on a boat in the lake! It was so much fun! I really enjoyed the boat time and the lake. I could not get over how warm the water was. It felt like bath water. Heidi had a fun time on the boat as well - except the life jacket part. It was super uncomfortable for her. We ended up putting a life jacket on me and hooking it to the boat and I just held her in the water. She liked that much better :) Lunch was at T-Bones and then we boated for a bit more, Bec tubed, and Heidi nursed and fell asleep for the rest of the boat ride home. Surprisingly once we got back Heidi napped for a little bit longer in the bed. After the boat ride and naps we all just chilled at the house. Well, David's parents left - but the rest of us chilled out after the long day in the sun. We ordered pizza for dinner and then Heidi and I went to sleep at about 8:30.

Sunday we got up and went to the Discovery Place in uptown Charlotte. Such a great place! Heidi {and us big kids!!} really enjoyed all the science/learning spots as well as the aquarium and kids center! We had lunch at Rock Bottom and then headed back to the house for nap time! After naps we went to the pool and had fun in the water center and slide! Even Heidi enjoyed the slide! For dinner we headed to seriously one of the best restaurants ever - Sammy's in Belmont. Oh my, it was delicious. I already know what I am going to order the next time I go! Yes, there will be a next time!! After dinner Heidi went to bed and then we played cards for a bit. Then we went to bed.

Monday morning we all lounged around the house and we got on the road around 1PM to make the trek back home! Heidi slept for a little over an hour for a nap on the way - which was nice.

We had such a wonderful time with our family and cannot wait to go again! I feel like there are so many fun things to do in the Charlotte area and we barely touched the surface on all the fun there is to have! Thanks Bec and David for being such wonderful hosts and tour guides!!

Heidi - 14 Months

Heidi - you are 14 months!

{well, actually, I am 2 weeks late in this post}

- You are wearing 12-18 months and 12 months clothes.

- You love to pull clothes out of your drawers.

- You love to hide objects or "place" them in your favorite spots.

{like my keys you put in the recycling bin}

- Some words: up, down, sit, dog, meow, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, no, done, dada, mama, bubba

- You can get off the couch with hardly any assistance.

- You love the stairs and are pretty good at climbing and getting down.

- Books are a favorite!

- You love to bring a toy or something and back up to sit in our lap.

- You are still nursing.

- You love fruit! Especially watermelon. We still have not found anything you do not enjoy.

- You love to dance and pick your feet up really fast - like you are jogging in place.

- Outside is a favorite place to be.

- You are now in your rear-facing big girl car seat.

Finally!

I finally caught up on blog reading. Wow - its has taken for.e.v.er. Seriously. No, really. I was at least 2 weeks behind for a couple of months. Personal time at the computer is limited to reading blogs (catching up!) and a facebook post here and there.

I had mentioned about a friend that started a cleaning business and that they came to our house a couple of times. Dear friends you are going to learn something about me tonight/today. I hate to clean and I am a messy person. There - I said it. If John and I ever argue about anything (which is pretty rare!) its about housework. I look at it as if I am already working about 13 hours a day which would be 7am - 8pm with Heidi and my job. I feel as if I cannot spend quality time with Heidi if I worry about the housework. I also cannot have a moment of time to myself if I worry about the housework. So, I don't :) Now, do not get me wrong - I hate dirt and the house being dirty. I just don't want to take the time to clean it! Heidi does not allow me to clean either :) She would much rather we spend our time playing and snuggling!

A few weeks ago my friend started this business and I thought, what the heck. I am stressed and I want to have a clean house for John. So in came Dazzling Diva's to the rescue! Can I tell you how much better I feel? SO MUCH! I feel like I can keep up with everything now. As much as I feel relieved it also feels kind of like a let down. Like I have failed at being able to do everything. I feel like I should be able to handle it all. Work, take care of Heidi with all the wonderful activities we can do together, spend time with John when we can, clean, cook, laundry, and a little bit of me time. I have no idea who I was talking to the other day about guilt, but she said that she never knew how much guilt she could feel until she became a parent. How true that is...

I always tell myself, well if I were staying home with Heidi I would have it all clean and spotless - have dinner on the table homecooked each night. If I were staying at home I would not feel guilty for wanting a little bit of me time and I would not feel guilty needing to take her to a sitter or MDO if I needed to clean the house. Even though my job gives me the opportunity to take off when I need to and to have Heidi up there if I need to its just not the same.

SO - I got up to finish some laundry and I definitely forgot where I was heading with this post. Oh well, just some thoughts I guess :)

I guess to sum it all I feel great about having a clean house and I just hope that maybe some of the guilt can be swept under the rug now that the dirt is gone from it. Just waiting for that day when I am at home with the kiddos. Well, just Heidi for now, but there will be more at some point in time! Who knows when!! Hee-hee-hee!

Post!

- I think we're on the mend from the teething. Heidi has been in a much better mood. Sleeping is much better. Hopefully we'll start working on the crib again tomorrow.
- I have been sucked in to the worst show in history - Bachelor Pad. Why? Why do I love trash tv like this?
- We're taking a trip to Charlotte, NC in the near future. Anyone have any recommendations? We're visiting John's sister and her hubby.
- Work is going well. I am on a mission to sell a couple of cars to pay for a trip I want to take in a few months.
- Hubs has been working extremely hard at work; I am super proud of him :)
- We had a friend start a cleaning business and we hired them to come a couple of weeks ago. I will write a post all about it. I will say that it was so nice to come home to a spankin' clean house!!
- We bought Heidi a new carseat. Our little girl is growing up. *sniff* I hope she loves it! I hope to install it tomorrow and then have it checked out during lunch. So many carseats are not installed properly...

Yes-No

Times have been busy here in Henninger Land! We are full of belly buttons, Bubba's, and no's :). Heidi is obsessed with her bellybutton and ours as well. She tries hard to say the word and sometimes it comes out, but it mainly comes out as "BB". Constantly Heidi is calling for Bubba, which is a nickname we have for Hunter. I don't know why, but John and I have always called him that as a nickname. She has picked up on that big time - and she probably says that word more than anything else. Next, of course, would be mama.
The past few days Heidi has been teething something awful. Nights around here have been horrible. I feel like I am taking naps rather than actually sleeping. We were doing so great about getting a routine at night and her sleeping in the crib, but the past few nights we have just put her straight into our bed. I really love our routine and how Heidi has been responding to it. We get home, play, eat dinner, take a bath, Heidi has naked time to play, get pj's on, sit in the rocking chair to talk about our days, read a book, nurse, and then go to the crib. She loves to say "night-night" and then put her head down on something. When I say, "its time to take a bath" or "let's go night-night" she goes straight into the appropriate rooms for those events.
Back to the teething - the poor thing does not want anything in her mouth except her hands and to nurse. I am so thankful we are still nursing because I don't know how I would get her to eat anything. Its also so soothing to her to nurse. Maybe I will need to keep nursing until she is completely finished teething. We have tried teething rings/toys, frozen food, ice chips, cold water - anything and everything. She refuses to take Tylenol at all. Last night John went to Wal-Mart to pick up some baby oragel/teething tablets; neither of which she wanted to take. Heidi feels like a furnace, but tonight she is not feeling quite as hot.
This morning I was holding Heidi and I asked her if she wanted daddy to hold her and she so cutely said, "no". She has recently been answering no to things. It is really the cutest thing. I will try to get a video of it. Tonight was the first of many "no-yes" fights.
On a completely different note - please keep my cousin Nick and his wife Alyson in your prayers. They had their twins a couple of days ago at 28 weeks. Everyone is doing well and the boys are great - most likely to be in the hospital for about 8 weeks. Just say a little extra prayer for them! I hope to go visit them tomorrow.
Have a great night everyone!!