Courtney update and new Maggie photos

Here's a quick update on my health (because I'm sick of blogging about myself):
I'm home from the hospital after 9 days. I'm easily fatigued, slightly uncomfortable sometimes, and in pain sometimes, but so glad to be home. I have a follow-up appointment next Thurs. and expect to be in a bikini within the month. Well...maybe not that last part.

Grandma Mathis and Carol (Grant's mom) are staying about an extra week to help me recover and mostly care for Maggie. As my mom said, we're nominating them for sainthood.

And now...the promised photos of Maggie! Here she is with Grandmama, being snuggly.
Here she is just being cute. She now knows how to pull out the kitchen chairs in order to climb up them and onto the table.
Here we are at Pancake Pantry the day after I was discharged from the hospital. I think everyone looks cute but I think I look a little weird.
Here is Maggie at gymnastics. Grandma and Grandmama took her twice and I went the last time but just sat and watched. Grandma taught her to put her arms up and say "ta-da!" after her "dismount".


I'll leave you with a few funny Maggie stories. Carol brought Maggie a little toy that is an elephant that blows butterflies out of his trunk. There are nets with it that kids are supposed to use to catch the butterflies. Edison and Emme Dupree came over and were playing with it with Maggie, but rather than try to play the game, Maggie just ran around them in circles, giggling and saying, "It's so much fun! It's so much fun!"

Also, Erin and Jim brought over a spare chair they had that we'll use in Maggie's room and once it was set in place she climbed on it, plopped down and said, "It's so comfy!" She is really talking like crazy (how many times have I written that?!).


Sometimes when Grant and I are trying to get each other's attention without shouting we whistle a little whistle that sounds like two notes, one high and then one low. Now Maggie tries to imitate us and when we whistle she "whistles" back but it sounds more like this "Fee-foe" (the "fee" is high and the "foe" is low). It's pretty cute.

All right, thanks for reading all of my ramblings!

I am STILL at the darn hospital

As you read from the title, I'm still here! I've had a few minor setbacks but things are looking up. The day that they put me on "Liquids", rather than "Clear Liquids" I ate about 1 cup of creamy soup and a little jello and was really uncomfortable all night long. I barely slept because my stomach hurt so badly. I told my dr the next day and he said, "Okay, we're pulling you back to sips of clear liquid (a demotion even from clear liquids)." He also said that there's one more little setback which I won't get into here b/c I'm not sure how much you want to know! He said I could be here one more day or 2 more weeks, at which point I started crying because I'm SOOOOO ready to go home and am missing Maggie and Grant so badly. That was yesterday and today I've been on Clear Liquids again and have been walking tons, trying to get my digestive system to wake up! Things are improving and so I hope tomorrow morning he'll be able to give me a better idea of when I can expect to go home.

So to recount: since Tuesday, July 17 at 3:30pm all I've had to eat is jello, chicken broth, juice, ice chips and one delicious cup of creamy soup. I've lost several pounds and am really looking forward to milkshakes and my number one craving since I've been here: PANCAKES! (Did I mention this already? I'm seriously hungry now.)

I was thinking, in case you're wondering what the spleen does, or the pancreas, or what information is available online about my solid pseudopapillary tumor, here are some links!

Here are a few photos of my recent trip to New Orleans with my mom to visit my sister Lindsay and her husband Jim (and their daughter/dog, Yippie). Here we are eating Cajun food and the BEST cornbread I have ever eaten.

Here we are outside of La Madeleine, a yummy French restaurant we like. We basically ate our way through New Orleans.

Here is my loony sister, Lindsay, with Jim. She's a good self-photographer, huh? :)