Shoulder Update

Here's the scoop for those who don't know...

My surgery was last Thursday.

All didn't go exactly as planned.

I ended up having to stay at the hospital for quite a few hours after the surgery. I was under anesthesia much longer than expected and got sick from it.

Things were worse than they thought and the dr ended up going in and suturing tendons back together.

The whole recovery was supposed to take around 6 weeks originally.

Here's the scoop now-
The doctor and physical therapist say that I have to keep my arm in the sling and immobile (except for twice weekly PT) for six weeks. That will be hard. Then, I am looking at 3-4 months of physical therapy, and a total of 9-12 months before my shoulder is fully functioning again.

Pray for me that I will not go crazy. Thank-you.

TGIF!

Well we have almost finished another summer week here and I just have to say, "I SO love summer!" I would love it even more if I didn't have to deal with this shoulder thing. It makes playing with the kids harder! But, I can be thankful that I still have one shoulder. :)

The boys have had swim lessons the last 2 weeks and they have enjoyed them. The only prob is that, this year, not very many kids signed up for lessons so they put the whole age group in one class and didn't have levels. Most of the things the boys did they learned last year. Michael and I were a little frustrated because we wanted them to progress but they did learn to patiently wait even though they were bored. (This is a good life skill.) They also fine tuned some of last year's skills and that was good. So, it wasn't a total waste of money. :) They enjoyed being in the water for 2 weeks. Gideon just took the pre-school class again. He did learn to jump in by himself, dive for rings, and kick and move his arms simultaneously. He still can't keep himself totally above water without help but he is getting close!

Yesterday we went to a friend's pool and we had a great afternoon. The older boys are swimming like fish now. It's SO nice to be able to sit and slightly relax while they swim. The big surprise there was Gideon. He hasn't liked jumping in at the pool because he doesn't like to go under for long. Yesterday I had a life jacket on him because of my shoulder and he decided he wanted to jump off the diving board like Judah and Thomas. I told him to go ahead. Karen and I moved into the deep end and away he went. His smile was HUGE when he resurfaced. He did it over and over!! I was so proud of him. YAY!

I'm not sure what we are doing this weekend. I'm hoping to do our monthly shopping for July on Monday. I need to get that out of the way before the surgery on Thursday. :)

I hope that y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings!-Angela

Busy Busy Busy!!!

We're all doing just fine here. :) We've just been crazy busy. What have we been up to? Well, I'll tell you...

First of all we're busy doing summer things; playing outside a lot, drinking lots of water, and hosing down the hot alpacas.

The boys started swim lessons last week and they will finish up the session this week. The coach is going S L O W L Y! In fact it's too slow but at least they get to be in the pool and have fun with other kids. :)

The alpacas are doing well despite the high heat. If you scroll down to the post before this one you will see the new alpaca news. :)

Our worship pastor called me on Tuesday morning and asked me for a favor. The choir is doing a service of encouragement through song tomorrow and one of the women who had 2 solos had to go out of town for a death in the family. :( He asked me to fill in for her. So I have been BUSY learning 8 songs this week, two of which I have solos in. OY! It's been FUN but definite work. Please pray for a strong voice anointed by Him tomorrow. My vocal chords are tired from all the hours of rehearsal. THANKS!

Michael's mom was here a couple weeks ago and we had fun spending time with her! She's such delightful company. She is so easy to please and not critical! We love her. :)

Michael and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on June 12th. We went away for the weekend. That's the first time we've ever done that! The boys had a fabulous time with good friends of ours who stayed at our house for the weekend and watched not only our boys but took care of the animals too. We are now indebted to them for LIFE! Hehe!!

I guess the only other thing is my shoulder. I don't remember posting about it before here. Here's the deal...

I noticed some pain in my shoulder about 4 (or so) months ago. It gradually got worse until it was pretty painful a lot of the time. I finally went to an orthopedic surgeon. I had already tried resting it and slinging it. He gave me a Cortisone shot and I waited 3 weeks. I got A LOT of relief from that shot. Then, I went back for a second one. Didn't finish it off. Tried physical therapy for a few weeks. Didn't help. Doc ordered an MRI and found out that I had 2 things wrong. Bursitis and arthritis. WHAT?! I'm only 32!! Anyway, the bursitis is swelling and the arthritis is swelling and they are irritating each other and pinching things and impeding movement, causing lots of pain, etc.

I am scheduled for surgery on July 2. Please pray that God will guide the Dr's eyes and hands. Pray for a complete and total healing!!

I know that I COULD PROBABLY try to rest it and do enough PT to bring down the swelling but it's pretty much impossible with the 3 young boys and the farm. I just have to do too much. Plus, I forget not to do things. I cannot sling it all the time because it could "freeze". That would be BAD! So, I feel, that this is the best option for me at this time.

After surgery I will have 6-8 weeks of Physical Therapy 3Xs a week. Fun, fun!!

So, that's what's been going on around here. :)

Hope that all of my readers and friends are having a wonderful summer!

Blessings!-
Angela :)

It's a BOY!

We have a new addition at Sweetwater Farm! Well to be exact, Mommy and new cria still live in VA. We will re breed her there, next month, and pick her and baby boy up probably in August. :)

This is not the greatest pic but you can still get a glimpse. :)

Cocoa and baby are the darkest ones in the pic! Cocoa looks weird because she was newly sheared. Hehe!!

We are SO excited! I can't wait to bring them home to live HERE!

Family Day At Stone Mountain

We don't give a lot of presents on birthdays here. Usually, we go a special place to celebrate. This year Thomas wanted to go to Stone Mountain park. It's a great place!
His real birthday is tomorrow and Daddy will be working. We will take a field trip to the zoo tomorrow. :) However, Daddy wanted to go with us to Stone Mountain. Here are some pics from today. Enjoy!


Gideon has been asking for weeks now to ride a train. He was so excited!!


He does not LOOK very excited because he was wanting me to get on with them, not take pictures. Hehe!


He wanted to ride that one too and was disappointed when I told him it was just there so we could see it.



Michael bought us all a chocolate snack for the train. Thomas is eating a chocolate covered marshmallow.


So is Judah.


Gideon chose the chocolate covered Oreo. Isn't that a sweet little cookie face?


And we're off. He was so mesmerized!
We all enjoyed watching his expressions.

After the train it was lunch time at Miss Katie's Sideboard Restaurant. Thomas is pretending to be a King. The table was BIG and Michael said that's what he felt like.


Judah loves having his picture taken.


The Great Barn. It was a fun place to play for awhile. There are different games you can play inside. They all involve foam balls. Michael's favorite involved the guns you could shoot with the balls (of course!).

After the Barn, Michael and the boys decided to go on the Sky Hike. It looked awesome but with my shoulder thing I couldn't do it. Gideon was too little anyway. So, while they were suspended in the air on a ropes course, Gideon and I went on the train again!!! Yeah! He fell asleep almost as soon as we pulled out of the station.


Here is the relief carving on the side of the mountain.


It's really quite something!!


What a goof! I wanted to take our picture so, of course, he put his hand over his face. :) Silly boy!!


Isn't this the sweetest picture EVER??!!


AS we were walking back to the Sky Hike to see how the boys were coming, we saw the bubble man. Gideon loved that!


The guy made HUGE bubbles!

Michael said that both of the boys were scared during the "hike". He was really proud of them though because they both worked THROUGH the fear and finished the course. Thomas was afraid the whole time but Michael said he kept saying, "I'm NOT going to let the fear win!" Judah was afraid in the beginning but Michael said about halfway through he just took off on his own and didn't even need Daddy next to him! Yeah!!! That's HUGE for him!


Thomas is waiting for Michael to cross.


Here he comes.


Oh look! Daddy spotted Mommy and Gideon...


and decided to clown around for the pictures! I rolled my eyes of course.

Since they were only about 1/2way through... we went on a short walk.


Gideon was just fascinated by


this waterwheel. He watched it for awhile.


Okay back to the carving, it's HUGE! It really doesn't look so big from far away.


But in perspective... this is a tree.

Here's some info I gleaned from the web:
The entire carved surface measures 3 acres (12,000 m2), about the size of three football fields. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet (120 m) above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet (58 m), and is recessed 42 feet (13 m) into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet (3.7 m) to the mountain's surface.


Gideon wanted to climb too.


He was so cute!


He enjoyed himself immensely. I enjoyed watching him!


This is what we saw when we returned to the others. Thomas being brave.



Judah waiting his turn.


Look at him go! He's got it now!!


Every once in a while though he would get this serious look. I'm sure it had something to do with the height.


C'mon Thomas!


You can do it!!


DON'T LOOK DOWN!


It really was HIGH.


There was a small rope course for little kids. After the big boys completed the real course this was a cakewalk for them.


They practically ran through it. LOL!


Gideon could do it too but he needed a little help from...


Goofy Dad!

At the end of the little rope course there was a zipline. That was a HUGE hit!!!


Even Michael tried it out.


Judah loved it too.


Can you see the sheer joy on Thomas' face?


He was like an old pro.


Gideon's first try.


Gideon's second try. He kept falling off after about 10 feet. He just kept going back over and over until he


GOT IT!!! YEAH GIDEON!! Look at that beautiful smile!


Thomas was pushing Gideon and there was music playing. He started moving the stroller like he was dancing. It was so funny! Gideon loved it.


These last two aren't from Stone Mountain but I just couldn't resist...

Some people have normal woodpiles...



Others landscape their woodpiles.


Scary isn't it? Heehee!!

Boyhood!

My boys are always doing boy things. Sometimes this can be, um, challenging. (Mothers of boys understand this statement I'm sure!)
While I was taking pics of the dogs yesterday, this is what the big boys were doing...



Let's work together and see if we can tie this piece of stump to the rope and make a swing!


Let me test it and see if it will hold.


We got it! Now how do we get on it?


Judah always uses his head in situations like this. :) Smart boy.

I held my breath knowing that it would fall off in a few minutes. It did but thankfully it didn't crush anyone. :)

Puffy? Dogs

Well we had these great big puffy/poofy dogs...


They looked like this...

and this.

BUT NO MORE! Michael shaved them. Now they look like




THIS!


AND THIS!



Cygwyn, how do you like all that nice cool air?



Thank-you my kind Master for making me Georgia summer ready!


Isn't that wild?! I still do a double take. It's almost like they are HUGE hounds or labs or something. :)