Please Pray!

For the few of you who may not know already:

Long story short, Joy was taken to Malone hospital Sat. afternoon with dangerously high fever, dehydration, and all the lovely things that go along with that! She was moved from Malone hospital late Sat. night/Sun. morning to Burlington, VT's PICU. They have ruled out swine flu and seem to have settled on severe pneumonia as a diagnosis. After a day of testing and an oxygen mask, they decided to sedate her and place a tube directly into the collapsed lung to keep her from using up all her energy on breathing when it is really needed to help her body fight. So. . .

As of Sunday afternoon, she has been sedated and they plan to keep it that way until the worst of the fluids and infections are gone and the tube can be removed. She may not know the difference, but we're all struggling over the fact that not only was she admitted on my mom's birthday, but now it looks like she will sleep right through her 14th Birthday tomorrow!

Please pray! We have confidence in God and the team of doctors and nurses working with her, but the waiting is tough especially not being able to really talk to her or do anything for her.

Never Fails. . .

Why is it that you always find one dirty fork or spoon AFTER you've started the dishwasher? Or you get the electric knife or mixer all put away neatly in its little case just to remember that the blades/beaters are still in the dish drainer and you have to start all over??

Just a random thought. Please tell me I'm not the only one that does this! (Guess you can't tell I'm cleaning my kitchen today!)

Everyday Blessings

After my last class (and I'm ashamed to say my first B in a class since enrolling at AI of Pittsburgh), I was seriously having issues wanting to go on. To make a long story short, I couldn't figure out what the instructor was expecting out of me and when I asked her via e-mail, she wouldn't work with me and give me any ideas of how I could improve. Needless to say, I was a little worried about the next instructors I encountered.

Now I'm about half-way through my current class and the instructor is good enough, but the work load is like nothing I've ever encountered in any other class (even the ones that are supposed to be hard). It's not that the work is extremely difficult and most of it so far is just repeating things we've done in other classes and combining them all in order - actually going through an entire design job start to finish. It's just that most classes have around three assignments each week with the occasional fourth assignment. The first week of this class had FIVE assignments and the next two weeks had four each. Like I said, the work is not hard, but it IS extremely time consuming and if we're honest with ourselves, a lot of this stuff will NEVER be done in the course of the average design job! I've just been way stressed and discouraged with this class. I don't have local resources for fabrics and things, so I spend hours sitting in front of the computer trying to guess at things and our client information is very limited and we don't have a real client to ask our many questions. I know I'm not putting my absolute best into the assignments and yet my lack of sleep is making it hard to even care! I've been a little overwhelmed to say the least!

Anyway, all that to say that Today begins week 4 of 5 1/2 and I just received the e-mail from the instructor outlining the week's assignments. Much to my surprise, there are only three assignments this week!! I know it's a little thing and most of you have no idea why I'm feeling so blessed right now, but I AM!! After a late night finishing up the crazy model (pictured above) Saturday and an early morning Sunday, I was dreading today (and the next couple weeks) but that e-mail just made my whole week! So allow me this moment of relief and excitement - even if it is over a small thing!

Good Riddance Facebook!

Just letting everyone know that Jon and I have deactivated our Facebook accounts. For family and friends, please keep posting pictures and such on your blogs or feel free to e-mail.