Weekend of rest

This weekend is going to be my lazies weekend. My body has gone through a lot of stress in the past month and finally I get a chance to just hang out and relax.

Went to Target today and bought some Mother's Day cards to send out next week. I also went to Old Navy and bought an outfit that I will save for a warmer day. Now I'm home, on the couch and enjoying my time to myself. I was supposed to go to another going away party for an ex co-worker tonight, but this is the third one that he's has so far and I just don't feel like celebrating for the 3rd time. So I think I'll pass on that one. Last night I went to my brothers to watch a movie which was nice to finally hang out with them like I used to.

Tonight I'm going to just hang out here, maybe watch a movie and get some good sleep :)

Goodnight

Christina

Christina and Elise 

She's in Heaven

Hi all, I haven't written in a long while. Elise has been my main focus therefore haven't had the chance to write.

Elise was born on March 19th, 2005 and passed away on April 23rd, 2005. Her life here on earth was very short filled with lots of love and comfort. She was precious. My last chance holding her was April 21st which I charished deeply. I was able to say my goodbyes that night which turned out to be the last time I was able to see her alive. It was a happy/sad day for me. I was happy to see her and to hold her for the last time however, that night was filled with many tears as she lay in my arms knowing it was goings to be her last.

These next couple of days are going to be spent with my family and my sister-in-laws family together to greive the loss and to comfort eachother. My brother and Abby are one of the strongest people that I know. To go through all of this and still manage to take care of their son is awesome.

Elise has touched so many of our lives and has brought our family together like no other. I was talking on the phone to a friend and he said something that put a positive spin on all of this. He said, "This is going to happen to all of us, it just happend to her sooner than later" It did. We are all destined to die sometime in our lives it's just that God chose to take her sooner than later for some reason. Only God knows why. One of my co-workers said, "She will now be able to see, hear and do all the things that she couldn't do here on earth".

Goodnight to all of you.

Christina

Update

Elise's condition hasn't gotten any better. Her pH level is low and she still can't swallow, cough or anything regarding that. These functions are controlled by the brainstem which her MRI showed a bit of a concern in that area. I think I might have failed to mention that before. Sorry. They are still feeding her breast milk via IV and I believe that it's through her bellybutton. She also developed pnamonia(sp) because she can't cough up anything from her lungs. So everything is just sitting there. The nurses suck her out but they can only get so much. She's now moved to an open incubator type thing because the closed one was making her too hot. I haven't been there for a while because I developed this cold. It's almost over and I'm happy because then I can go and see her :) . I think I covered everything, if not, it'll show up next time.

Elise has been in my mind 24/7 and I can't seem to not think about her. I'm in a way placing my life on hold to take care of Marek and support Marcus and Abby. It's really cool how this support system works and how this brings family together. It has brought perspective to my own life.....my life really isn't that complicated at all and the things that I complained about before really don't matter......here is someone who just came into this world and is dealing with things that I haven't ever had to deal with. Life is too short.

Elise

Well, it's been a rollercoaster of emotions for me starting last Saturday up until now. It's been very eventful to say the least, but not the kind of events that you want.

Beginning last Saturday, Abby went into labor, there were complications, Elise, new niece, went directly into ICU and was put on a respirator. Later that day, was taken off. That night, she was said to have a seizure. I learned about it Sunday morning because I called Gail, Abby's mother, to see when we were going to go to the hospital to see Elise, Abby and Marcus. That day was filled with crying and hoping that everything would turn out okay. I believe that Sunday night she was put back on the respirator because she couldn't breathe on her own and also was put back on the oxygen tube. Monday it was the same.....but I believe that they found bile in her stomach, still couldn't breathe so stayed on the respirator and she's not swallowing which means that she's being fed throught an IV via her belly button. Tuesday came and went without any answers. Thursday came and her MRI results came in....the were normal. She was also taken off the respirator and the bile was gone from her stomach. Her blood oxygen level was back to normal. So all was good, she was making a 180 recovery. Friday, today came and the doctor became concened because her muscle mass is low and she's still not able to swallow. She has no gaging reflex yet despite all of this, her EEG seemed to look okay however, the doctor is sending it to another doctor to examine it just to be sure he's not missing anything. So they are confused because MRI and EEG seem good yet she's still having these problems. They can't fit her into a category and are now trying to find a reason why. Next week, she will have another EEG to see if it will make any imporvements.

It's a waiting game. When everything seems to be okay, something goes wrong. So we are taking it day-by-day.

With all of the above said, I've learned something from all of this. Life is too short. Family is the best support you can have. Support comes from people where you least expect it. This also puts my own life into perspective. There are things that I have worried about that are so small and maybe a waste of my time to worry about.

Goodnight to you all.....Please keep Elise, Marcus and Abby in your thoughts.

Weekend

I get a call from my dad at 9:10am on Saturday morning, he lets me know that Abby had her baby and it was followed with a 'but'. My dad began to tell me that there were complications during the delivery. Elise, my new niece, was put into the ICU right on the spot. When she was born, she came out blue but soon turned pink within a few seconds. She was then crying and moving like any normal new born. What happened was her umbilical cord was pinched and I won't get into the details out of respect for my sister-in-law.

I was scared for Elise and was feeling horrible for my brother and sister-in-law. Today, Sunday, they came home from the hospital and was greated by Marek, my nephew. They had time to see eachother again. Elise is still in ICU and is now off the oxygen tube that they put into her nose. Great news!

It's a wait and see game as far as this goes. I will keep you updated. Keep her in your prayers.

Have a good night!

My Weekend

I had a great relaxing weekend. Friday night I came home and worked on my teaching applications. I believe I have 7 sent out now and still working on 8 more. Arg....I just want to be done with them. Applications that all ask for the exact same information 15 times gets kind of tiresome. Oh well, nothing is easy in life. :)

Saturday I got up, worked on my applications again and finally got 2 done. :) I talked on this internet phone, Skype, I don't know if you've heard of it or not. It's pretty cool, you can talk to anyone for free as long as it's computer to computer. So I talked to Sa'ad, I met him through Jakub once when he was talking to him at his apartment. So after we broke up, I got this feeling to e-mail him. So that was, I don't know 2-3 weeks ago? So anyway, we've exchanged e-mails and chatted on messenger and finally called eachother. We talked for maybe a couple of hours.....I'm sure we would have talked for more, but the 7 hour time difference gets in the way :) After, I went to work out, and was on my way over to Jakub's to watch movies. He borrowed his works projector so it was like watching it at the movies, but on a smaller scale. I was there unitl 2:30am. Finally got home around 3 and went straight to bed.

Sunday, I found myself talking to Sa'ad for 5 hours!! It's crazy how the time just flies. So I finally got up, took a shower and ran to the grocery store at 5pm. Hehe...lazy day :) Oh yeah, I took pictures of my eyes last night, macro shots. I can't believe how close you can get! So anyway, it's 7:56am and I need to get into the shower and get ready for work.

Have a great day!

My date

Went on my date last night. I had a great time. He was really nice and had great converstaion, however, I didn't feel there was any chemistry. So I let him know and he responded okay. It was just the first date and all so I didn't expect him to get all bent out of shape or anything. So it began well and ended well. There are still some more fish in the sea, just have to wait :)

I was going to go workout tonight, but I decided to come home instead and work on some applications to send in to schools. I will be sending about 15+ applications along with my resume out so I'm hoping that I'll get something. I'm also sending them to other states to greater my chances of getting a job. If nothing comes about them, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'll have to find something else. I can't be in my current situation for the rest of my life let along even a year longer.

Not a whole lot has been going on here. As for this weekend, Jakub and I are planning to watch a movie using a projector that he'll check out from work. I've never watched a movie through one of those before so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to go over there around 3-4pm on Saturday. As for the rest of the weekend will be spent filling out applications. I really need to get them done. I really can't wait any longer.

So anyway....I'm going to get working on those now so have a great night!!!