Baby Shower

This past Sunday, a few ladies from our church threw Benjamin and I a baby shower! It was a lot of fun. A lot of loving people and nice gifts to help start our family. Pictured here is Heather, me, and Kim. Some old, good friends of mine that could make it to the shower.....thanks, girls!
When I got home, Sunday evening, I began organizing the baby things....unwrapping, folding, separating.....its fun to go through it all, again, while remembering who the gift was from and the story behind it. I think it is all pretty much organized and ready for baby's use! It is another reality check for me. Sometimes I go into little moments of denial that I am actually having a baby. But then as I fold onesies or put diapers on the shelf....it is a time of excitement and anticipation. I am looking forward to meeting our new bundle of joy!

PTL!

Yay for mom coming home from the hospital yesterday and yay for benjamin coming home from Texas today!!!
I picked up my mom from the hospital after I got off work yesterday. She still has pneumonia, but the last leg of recovery can be done from home. She is on a bunch of oral antibiotics along with some other medications. My mom still is weak and gets short of breath sometimes along with getting tired quickly. Doctor said no partying....no going back to work for awhile. Stay home and rest. Hopefully, the pneumonia will clear up soon! She has a couple doctor's appointments as well as some tests in the next couple of weeks.
Benjamin comes back home this evening from spending 4 days in Galveston, Texas. He along with 2 other guys, went down to put up temporary fences around the "construction sites". Because of Hurricane Ike, a lot of Galveston needs to be rebuilt. I am overly delighted that Benjamin is coming back home.....no more lonely nights. He should be back in 1.5 hours.
YAY!!!!!

Life

Today at 5am, Benjamin headed to Galveston, Texas with his work. About 2 weeks ago, he started working for a small fence company. They put up temporary fences all around the Chicagoland area as well as northwest Indiana. Because of the hurricane in Galveston, a lot of temporary fences are needed so things can be rebuilt. Benjamin will be gone until late Saturday night/early Sunday morning.
How am I doing? I don't like the fact that I come home to an empty house. It's been lonely around here and he hasn't even been gone for 24 hours! I miss him already. We got pretty good at the long distance thing while we were dating. Its been awhile since we had to be a part. I look forward to his phone calls.
Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy with school, work, the pregnancy, and trying to get my mom well so she can get home from the hospital. Benjamin is such a support. He makes sure I get adequate sleep, drink plenty of water, etc. He takes care of me....sees to it that I don't over exert myself. I love him.
My first class of the semester, Psych, is completed this week...yay! Next on the list is advanced medical/surgical....for 6 weeks. I stand amazed at how fast the completion of nursing school is creeping up. It seems like I was just graduating high school, excited for the next big step in life. Lord willing, I'll get through the last semester with no problems.

Update #2 on KGK

It has been 1 week since my mom decided to go to the hospital. And she is still hospitalized. The pneumonia has worsened over the last 2 days. Breathing is getting more labored because of the increase fluids in both of her lungs. She goes down for a chest x-ray each morning so doctors can monitor the progression/regression of the pneumonia. Because my mom has been on IV maintenance fluids since the first day, she has been retaining fluid in her legs and ankles. Today, they stopped the IV fluids. She is only getting antibiotics, intravenously. For the last 5 days, the doctors have been prescribing massive doses of antibiotics to try and get a hold on the bacterial pneumonia.
The plan of care for this week is to investigate deeper to see if something else is going wrong inside her body. One doctor thinks its the gallbladder. So more testing and lab work will be done over the next few days. There is no sign of her going home. They won't discharge my mom until they get the pneumonia in control and they find out, if anything, if something else is the matter.
Please be in prayer for:
-that the pneumonia will decrease, and breathing will become easier
-the fluids she is retaining in her legs and ankles will be reabsorbed quickly so then the swelling will go down
-that the doctors will be able to figure out if anything else is going on "deeper" inside my mom's body
-continued strength, physically, for KGK
-that the relationships between KGK and the medical staff will be non stressful and therapeutic
-continued encouragement and strength for KGK's family

Update on K. Kocevar

I thought this would be a good place to fill you in... Last Thursday, my mom, Klara, wasn't feeling well. After work on Friday, she came home and crashed in bed. She had flu-like symptoms. The symptoms went on all weekend, with no sign of improvement. Early Monday morning (around 3am), I got a call from her, saying she would like to go to the hospital. She wasn't getting better and thought she better get some help. They admitted her and she got up to the unit around 10am. Klara did have temporary relief (about 4 hours) because of the medications she received in ER. For a few days, they were unable to find what was wrong. Lab work was coming back normal, the initial chest x-ray was normal. It wasn't until Wednesday, when they did a CT scan of the chest and abdomen that they found out she has bilateral pneumonia.....it is in both lungs. Not fun. Klara continues to have fevers, chills, achy muscles, and feels weak. It won't be for another couple days when the antibiotics will get a hold of the infection and then hopefully, she will be feeling somewhat better.
A way that you could be of help is to pray and keep her in your thoughts. Pray that she will overcome this illness, that she would get relief soon from pain and "not feeling good". Also, you could pray that she would remain strong and pray for her family as they pull together to be of support to Klara. Thank you in advance for praying!

Our Room

Compared to our bedroom at the apartment, this bedroom is large. We had to adjust to the minimal closet space. Over at the Apt, we each had our own closet the length of a wall. And now, we share a closet that is as small as a front closet. Good thing we have dressers! The space is nice in the room, though. The walls came out darker than we expected, but the good news is the walls are more blue than we imagined.

Our bedroom was the 2nd room to get completed (first, was the living room). That was pretty important to me. I don't sleep very well when the room is in a chaotic state. Here are some pics for you visual people out there.

Baby Room

The baby room was a lot of fun to plan and think out. I found the bedding a Target awhile ago. I wanted to go with a "neutral" theme. I put the baby bedding on the registry. When I checked back, it said "limited time only". I don't like that part. Target has messed me up in the past. I find something I like, and when I go back for purchase....all gone. So, this time, I went ahead and bought the bedding for baby. I didn't see anything else that I liked as much. The bedding is little circles...almost like polka-dots. Red, yellow, green, and brown are the 4 colors in the pattern.
One of the walls is green along with the ceiling. The other 3 walls are yellow. I am happy with the outcome. As you can see, the walls were a turquoise. We had to put a couple coats of primer on, first.
I plan to put diapers, wipes, etc on the shelves. Those are actually 4 shoe racks from Ikea stacked up.
Oh, and we can't forget about the rocking moose! That's from Ikea, as well. G-ma thought it would be a great addition to baby's room. We hope baby enjoys it as much as we did picking it out. It was a hassle to put together, though. Love keeps ya going. :-)

Hallway + Bathroom

Next "room" that we come to is the bathroom, along with the hallway. There wasn't much to be done in the hallway. We replaced the ugly light fixture (the same one that hung in the front hallway) with a track lighting fixture. I am happy with our pick! We also painted the linen closet a neutral brown color (the door on the right).

The bathroom had a shower door. I am not a fan of those things. While I am trying not to trip on the way into the shower, I hit my head. Benjamin took the shower door down and replaced it with a shower rod and curtain....yay! He also added 2 towel bars.

Living Room

Come on in and stay for awhile! Let me show you around.....

When we bought the home, the entire house was painted white except for one bedroom. (turquoise) It was actually a nice thing that the walls were white because it made it easy to paint the colors of our choice. The living room has vertical blinds over the windows....we kept those. We like the clean and neat look. Did you notice the light fixture in the front hallway? There were TWO of those in the house. The other one is in the hallway near the bathroom. Benjamin replaced the front light fixture with a more modern/sleek one.
Some friends of ours helped us paint. Benjamin and I knew nothing about painting, so they were kind enough to show us the ropes. I think we got the hang of it.....just the basics, nothing fancy. The one wall of the living room is brick red, the other 3 are a golden yellow.
I find myself stopping and just enjoying the house. It feels like home. I was nervous about that part. How will you call something home that you saw a total stranger calling the same house, home? It is such a luxury to have a home of our own. I didn't realize how peaceful and private it would be.