Trick or Treat!

Well, we survived another Halloween! We started our evening out by visiting family and then we went to trunk or treat at our church (they had a bunch of activities for the kids-horseback riding, games, hot dogs, car show, and of course lots of candy!!). Next we went to "Mama Nell's" which has been a Halloween tradition since I was a small child. Mama Nell was a precious lady who would open her home to the community on Halloween. Every year she would dress up as a witch and serve "witches brew" and popcorn. We always looked forward to going to her house as a child. Mama Nell passed away a little over a year ago, but her family is carrying on the tradition. Her granddaughter Anna is now the "official" witch of Greenpond. Here are a few pics from our evening. Enjoy...

Jackson fell in love with this costume at Target. He actually originally wanted to be a mailman. (I don't know where he comes up with some of his ideas:)

Poor horse... I'm sure he has an awful crick in his neck this morning!

I just love this angle! (In case you don't get it, those are the horses hooves on the ground and the "cowboys" legs hanging from the horse.) aka cowboy riding a horse.

He looks like a natural up on that horse!

I'm a COWBOY!!

Nanny and all of her great-grands!

Trick or treating is hard work, but someome's got to do it!

Playin' Catch Up!!

I know, I know, I'm a bad bloggin' mama! I am horrible at remembering to update!! Sssoooo....I'm going to try and play catch up with what we've been up to for the past 2 months. We've been trying to lay low and avoid the BIG PIG (swine flu, that is). We have managed to dodge it so far! We've celebrated at a couple of birthday parties. We've been doing alot of hanging out and getting ready for fall. In fact, this past weekend we went to Nevin's Apple Farm and picked out our pumpkin to carve. (I made my first attempt at carving...Ha! Ha!) On a heart note, Jackson continues to do extremely well. We go back to the cardiologist November 4th for a check up. He's all healed up! We are so thankful to finally have all of this behind us. It's hard to believe that it was only 3 months ago since his surgery-seems like forever ago! Well, that's all for now...nothing new or exciting to report.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy...

Partyin' at Jumpin' Jax

Just chillin' in my new boots!

Modeling my new Carhart's.

My FAVORITE place to be!!
(If there is an empty laundry basket or storage bin, you can bet that Jackson is gonna' be in it!)

I rounded the corner and found "Handy Manny" sitting on my couch!

Playing at the pumpkin patch

Let's Go!

Look at my "LITTLE ANGEL" sitting among the pumpkins!

(Just a few seconds before he was trying to play football with them!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Just Monkeyin' Around

Well, it's been awhile since our last post and I'm happy to report that nothing exciting has been happening. We've been trying to lay low and avoid the Swine flu and any other nasty bugs floating around. We did take a family adventure to the good ol' Columbia zoo. We all had a blast! It was Jackson's first time here and Darrin and I had not been since elementary school many many moons ago!! We did make a trip to see the cardiologist this week, and got the word that Jackson is officially back to normal! Yippee!! Since the word "GO" he has been a bike-ridin', swing-swingin', bed-jumpin' fool!! (He's got a lot of time to make up for...8 weeks to be exact!!) We did have one more "first" this week. Today we went back to church as a family for the first time since surgery. Jackson was really excited! He has begged us every Sunday (and sometimes ended up in tears) for the past 8 weeks to go back to church. It felt great to be back! Here are some pictures from the zoo. Hope you enjoy...

Jackson, I mean, Monkey at work!

This was Jackson's favorite! (Not even an exhibit...just runnin' wild) He was absolutely fascinated with this squirrel. (Go figure! Guess we could've just stayed in the backyard instead of driving to Columbia!!)

"The BOYD exhibit"

This was probably the "big people" favorite. This is Darrin actually feeding the giraffes! Pretty cool, huh?!?

"WILD Man"

SHHHH!! Don't tell anyone you saw me riding a tiger.

GO COCKS!!

Last but not least... My absolute favorite picture of the day!

"BIRD MAN"

OOOPS!

OOOPS! I guess I forgot to give you a follow up from the previous post. Do you forgive me?!?Jackson is doing well. His incision has finally started to heal and looks much better! He still continues on aspirin, lasix, enalapril, and keflex. He still hates medicine time but hopefully all this will be better once we get rid of all the extras...lasix, enalapril, and keflex. He is still somewhat limited on his activity-feet still can't leave the floor:(,and NO SWIMMING:(! We only have about 2 more weeks!! YYYEEEAAA!!! So, for now we're trying to stay cool and NON-busy (no such luck with this one)! Until next time...

A Trip To The ER!!

As we showed you before, Jackson has a "bad" place on his incision. Well, it has progressively gotten worse!! We saw his cardiologist on Wednesday and he has been making threats to send us back to MUSC if it continues to get worse. Friday morning a new place appeared. I called the MD gave him a description of the new area, he told us to continue to watch it for now but that if ANYTHING changes (fever, pain at the site, the new place starts to blend into the old place, or if my "motherly" instinct kicked in, etc,) that he wanted to know about it. So, of course, we checked his incision every couple of hours as we always do and you would know that another new place had formed. Darrin and I both felt very uneasy about the new place-it looked completely different than the old "new" places did. We called the MD on call (of course it wasn't our own MD), we gave him a description, told him what Jackson's MD had told us that morning, and came up with a plan. We all thought that it would be best for someone to lay eyes on it. So... We loaded up the car and headed to Greenville. We arrived at the children's ER at about 10:30pm. Things went very smoothly (this was our very first visit to the ER-and hopefully LAST!). We were seen by the MD and she called the cardiologist on call (the one who said we should go to the ER). They both agreed that Jackson should be started on another antibiotic by mouth. Keflex was ordered and we were on our way at 12:00am! Who has ever heard of an 1 1/2 hour trip to the ER!?! Over the weekend Jackson has pretty much held steady as far as incision site looks go. They wanted us to be seen by our cardiologist today for a recheck. Of course he's not in the Greenville office today, so we are waiting to hear back from him to decide what we should do. Please pray for healing of Jackson's incision and that we don't have to head back to MUSC for any invasive procedures. I will try to update later. Until then...PRAYING and WAITING!!!

INTRODUCING...

Ethan Cole Greene

7lbs. 10oz. 19 3/4in.

born on

7/28/2009 at 2:28pm

Little Ethan entered this world today by c-section. Kim and the baby are both doing GREAT!! Everyone was extremely excited. You couldn't wipe the smile off of Nick or Emma's face. It's amazing how much Ethan and Emma (as a baby) look alike! Here are just a few of the special moments that we were able to capture. Enjoy!

Emma seeing Ethan for the 1st time.

Can we keep him?!?

I'm a BIG sister!

The PROUD Mama.

My Baby Brother.

Sleepin' Away.

The PROUD Papas.

Family Portrait.

What Have I Got Myself Into?!?

PRICELESS

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. Jackson met me outside this morning wearing this (and only this!)!

Fire truck pajamas. $7. Pack of Elmo underoos. $4. Spider-Man boots. $9.

Jackson Boyd. PRICELESS.

WARNING! This is NOT for the SQUEAMISH!!

We tried to warn you!...This is what we are now dealing with. Jackson is trying to "spit a stitch". (No, we did not make that up!) The technical terminology would be a foreign body reaction. Basically, the body recognizes the stitches as "foreign" and so the body tries to get rid of them. This usually happens over the knot of the stitch which is why his is occuring at the bottom of his incision. As horrible as this looks, they say that it's not infected. We have been communicating with the doc's this week and we actually took him in to be seen yesterday because it has gradually gotten worse (and because it's the weekend). They did go ahead and start him on an antibiotic by mouth just as a precaution (which made me feel better!). They wanted us to continue to watch it like a hawk and use the antibiotic cream. All we are waiting for now is his body to "spit the stitch"(the stitch will actually come through the skin, the doc's will snip it, and it will all be over with-WE HOPE!!). Jackson did spit a stitch after his second surgery but nothing like this. SO... PLEASE pray that this does NOT turn into an infection. As you can imagine, infection would be a very bad thing because it has a path straight to the heart! Otherwise, Jackson is doing extremely well!! WIDE OPEN to be exact!! As I said before, PLEASE pray that God would wrap his arms around Jackson and continue to heal him completely.

LOVE Much, LAUGH Often, and PRAY HARD!!

Made You LOOK!!

Nuttin' New To Tell

Well, it's been a little bit since our last post but it's been a whirlwind around here. Hopefully, things will return to DULL and BORING real soon... we can't wait!! Jackson continues to do really well. We did have 2 doctor appointments last week. His cardiologist said that everything still looked and sounded good, so no changes for now. The place on his chest that we were concerned about is still there-really red and scabbed, so we're still watching it closely and putting antibiotic cream on it. We're still limiting our exposure to crowds and probably still will for a little bit longer. It's been really hard "limiting his activity". I feel like we're constantly saying "NO, you can't do that" or "Get down from there". He's been a pretty good sport about it though. He does seem to need a nap since surgery which we think is related to him lying around for so long, but we have seen a big improvement in his activity tolerance. Before surgery, if he was running for a long distance he might would have to stop and rest halfway there. Tonight we went to Darrin's softball game and Jackson was able to run to and back without resting and he was barely winded. This is a big improvement for him! I don't have any new pics, but we'll try to work on that this week. So for now our plan is to patiently wait on the arrival of our new nephew who will be arriving July 28 (if not before), and do NOTHING!!

Thank you again for all the prayers for Jackson, Papa, and our family throughout the last couple of weeks. It's been a few weeks of HI's and LO's, but we have truly been blessed to have our church, family and friends supporting us all the way.

We LOVE You, Papa!!

Today around 12:40pm my Papa passed away (David Curry). He was diagnosed over a year ago with multiple myeloma (a type of cancer that effects the cells of the bone). He's 82 and has endured chemotherapy among other things throughout this past year. The family made the decision to place him in the McCall Hospice House, which was an absolute blessing! The children tried to keep him at home as long as possible and with the help of 3 very special caregivers, they were able to until he became to weak to handle at home. Papa was the most generous, hard-working, OPTIMISTIC, fun-loving, family-loving man that I've met!!

He will be GREATLY missed but NEVER forgotten!!

WE LOVE YOU, PAPA!!

We Love You!!

Home SWEET Home!!

We never knew how GREAT it would be to be back in our own bed!! Saturday night we all crashed once we hit the door. Jackson is still doing great! He's back to his old WILD MAN ways with an attitude of course but, we're working on that! We have to remind ourselves that it has only been 11 days since surgery and he's probably been through more in 9 days than most adults will go through in a lifetime. Anyway, he continues to do really well. We do have some post-op rules to follow...1. no activities that require his feet to leave the ground, 2. no large crowds, 3. no picking him up under his arms(This is probably the hardest, try picking up an almost 40 lb child "baby style"). They sent him home with several different medicines, all but one will be for a short time only. He's now on aspirin (This is used to thin his blood. He has been on this one since the first surgery and will be for life.), enalapril (This one is used to "dry" up any fluid from around the heart and lungs), and lasix (This is what most older folks call their "fluid pill". This is used to get rid of the extra fluid via the kidneys.), and last but not least oxycodone as needed for pain. He's not too fond of taking medicine anymore since this hospitalization (he has always been an excellent medicine taker!) so, every morning and night is now a struggle when it comes medicine time. We have 2 doctor's appointment this week- the pediatrician, and cardiologist. He does have one spot on his incision that does have us slightly concerned. He has an area at the bottom of his incision that is red and has a small pus filled area. We think that he is trying to "spit a stitch" (this happened after his 2nd surgery). This basically happens when the body recognizes the stitches as "foreign" and tries to reject them. We're watching this area very closely and we'll see what the cardiologist says on Wednesday. Well, that's basically "US" in a nutshell! Thank you so much for your prayers, calls, cards, gifts, and visits! God has once again truly blessed us! We're still praying for a quick and complete recovery without any complications. We love ya'll!!! Stay tuned...

Wild Man

Makin' Stuff

Playing Baseball on a Wii

Still Smilin'

Notice Anything Missing?!?

Keller and Jackson

SEE YA!!!!

HT, Here We Come!!

The numbers for Jackson's chest tube were right on this am, but we had to wait on his surgeon's approval. Once again we played the waiting game. He finally came around about 1:30pm and said to pull it. He went ahead and pulled it while he was there. We took Jackson back to the treatment room (where they do all procedures) which he screamed the whole way! He pulled it without any pain med or sedation and Jackson was back in his room within 5min. Jackson has been WIDE OPEN ever since! After an ECHO and chest XRAY. We got word to head to the house. After getting all of his medicines, etc. we got home about 10:30pm tonight. Needless to say, but no pics for tonight. The bed is calling our name!!!

Same Ol' Story, Just a Different Day!!

Well, nothing new to say. Same ol' story just a different day. We still have one chest tube that is still draining. Today, it has barely drained much at all, so we'll see what it does tonight. Jackson took a long nap, had play time and visited with my mom while Darrin and I got out for a few hours,and once again, visiting the playroom was the highlight of our day! Here are some pics from our day, there's one in there from last night that I couldn't resist. Jackson had not had his hair washed since last Wednesday, and it's not exactly easy to do since 1. he can't get in the shower 2. he has a tube and leads right in the middle of his chest and 3. we can't pick him up under his arms, so we're kind of limited on what we can do. Anyway, the girls suggested that we use this shower cap that has soap already built in and it's NO RINSE. I'll let you decide but I think that the picture is pretty priceless (or at least good blackmail for later)! You decide!

Am I Beautiful, OR What?!?

My Jungle Mask

A Wanna-be Beach Bum

Star Tap Dancing

Can You HEAR Me Now?