Sunday May 31, 2009

This was my last week for the school year. So the summer is upon us. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will has been waiting patiently because I told him he had to wait to go out on the boat. Thanks Will. But we do have to get through this next week in Salt Lake. Doctor week dontcha know.

Will has to go to the vascular surgeon on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to have a procedure done. It's the one he has had once before. The dr. goes through the vein in the groin and up towards the heart. If this vein isn't wide enough he will put in another balloon (he did one before) and blow the balloon up (in the vein, not the heart). I'm sure the description I gave is as close to the textbook as you can get (NOT).

Then after that, Will will go to dialysis somewhere. They haven't set that up yet. I know, time's running out but you know how doctors work, especially if you have been following this blog for a while. After that, we plan to go to the hotel and rest. I'm sure Will will need that by then. Danny and AnnMarie will be visiting sometime that night.

Wednesday he has to go in the morning for his PFT (his breathing test to see how good his lungs are working)., then go for some blood work and x-rays and finally he goes to see the big guns-the whole transplant team including Dr. Cahill. Then we know he will be tired, so we are going to stay one more night in SLC.

We have an appt. for dialysis at 6:30 in the morning. I'm not sure that we will get Will there on time. I think I will just roll him out of bed and into the car. He sleeps most of the time in dialysis anyway. Then we will go out and visit Danny and AnnMarie. It should be a good day after that. We should be home by Thursday night some time.

I hope I will have some pictures of some of our friends to put on the blog. We plan to take some of the time that we will have waiting for Will and visit our buddies in the hospital. Please pray for Will's tests and his procedure. We hope that maybe we can start visiting about Will's kidney transplant. That we really need prayers for also.

We will let you know how his time in SLC goes as soon as we get home. If anything goes on before that, we will let you all know.

Hope that all of you are planning a great summer vacation. Our vacation is going to be spent at home (remember it's been a long time since we have had time to just "be" and we live in the most wonderful valley in the world. We will have fun.

GOD BLESS

Sunday evening May 24, 2009

Happy Memorial Day

Above and below: Here is Will visiting some good friends of ours who came home to visit their mother (my good friend, Kathy Henslee). Their family has really changed over the time we were gone to SLC. Look at all babies!

We were next door neighbors for over 20 years and the kids grew up together. This is one of the Henslee girls, and she and Will are holding her triplets. Melissa's nieces and nephews are in the picture too (but that's not even half of them). It was a fun visit and Will loved being around all the kids.

Below:
Hagerman holds a Fossil Days during the Memorial Weekend with a big parade (that Will missed because he had to go to dialysis). Then they have a big thing in the park with vendor booths and carnival rides and live music. We use to love going to this every year (yes, they have wonderful food like elephant ears and corn dogs) and Will didn't think he wanted to go. He really hasn't gone much out in the public except those few basketball games. But he went and because he has to stay out of the sun, the pictures are kind of dark, so sorry.

Below:
Will found a nice shaded booth and sat awhile to visit with friends. Above is Butch whose daughter had a heart/lung transplant years ago and was friends with Will. Sadly to say she isn't with us any longer but she made a great impression on Will. Her perseverance and her wonderful outlook on life really changed Will's attitude about transplants.

Below:
Here is Will with one of his favorite people, Marge Sligar. Marge hadn't seen Will in almost two years. She use to own a big swimming pool in the Hagerman Valley and opened it up to Will on the off hours so he could swim when he was a kid. That helped him so much. She also helped run CF swim-a-thons to help raise money to find a cure. Her heart is bigger than all of Idaho and she really loves Will. She use to sneak into his hospital room at night on her way home and give him licorice. I think the nurses knew, they just looked the other way. The world needs more people like her, for sure. We love her and her family so much.

As you can see, Will has had a very busy weekend with everyone home for the holiday. He got to see a few old friends that he hasn't seen in quite a while. We didn't get out in the boat (maybe tomorrow) because everyone was on the river this weekend. He likes to drive the boat so we shouldn't have too many boats out there, right???

My dad turned 79 this week and they were throwing him a big party in Elko. We wanted to go but we couldn't get into dialysis any earlier because it was booked up. But Dad, if you are reading this, we really tried and I know you had a great time. Happy, happy birthday and I'm glad I get to be your daughter. We will celebrate when you get back to Boise. I love you

One of Will's closest cousins, Christi, had her birthday the day before my dad's. We didn't get to talk to her on her birthday but she knows that we thought about her all through the day. She's also getting married this summer.

I have one more week of school (Angel has two more weeks lol). Then "here comes summer" and fishing, fishing, fishing (with a little housecleaning in there somewhere). I hope all of you are getting ready for fun in the sun. Next week, on the third, we will be heading back down to SLC for Will's clinics. Hopefully we will get good reports all around. Please pray for that, thanks.

I might blog tomorrow night if we get more company. I know everyone likes pictures on here.

I pray for you all and hope God gives you all the blessings you need.

Sunday May 17, 2009

ANOTHER PARTY AT OUR HOUSE

(Pictures below)

This was a party for Will's cousin Shannon, his Uncle Jack and Will who all have birthdays a few weeks from each other. So they celebrate together. It was an unbelievable beautiful day, the sun was out and there was hardly any wind. We had lots of people with lots of gooooood food.

Will's week was pretty much the same. He went to dialysis and had to evaluate his dry weight again. We think he might be losing weight but it might be muscle mass building. It is so hard to figure out. I know his blood sugar is more stable and he's needing less insulin.

Because of the change in weight, I don't think the dialysis people are taking enough off so Will is having a little more trouble breathing. This should be fixed this week we hope. But we did miss a good friend's wedding on Saturday. Will was really looking forward to going, but after dialysis he wasn't up to it at all. Andy, if you are reading this, we really did want to come.

I haven't had much time this week to blog and I apologize. This week was crazy with a capital C in school. We just have eight days left and we had our field trip on Thursday which I loved. Then we have so many little things happening. Life will be busy for the next two weeks so if I don't get on to blog like normal I will after school gets out. The last day is the 28th. It seems hard to believe that the school year is almost out.

Above and below: Uncle Jack, Will and Shannon

Happy Birthday

Above: Here's little Carson showing off for "Uncle Will" and Aaron. Isn't he cute?
Candace was down for the weekend and we had a lot of fun with her. Angel got some cute pictures and I will get them up on the blog so you can see how big she is getting. She went out fishing on our boat with her daddy and she loved it.

Above: Here's Will with his other Uncle (Tom's other brother, Bill) and Shannon. I think Tom is cleaning off the table. He's such a good helper.

GOD BLESS

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2009

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

We had a great day today!

We started the day by going to church and I love my church. Then we came home and went over to Kim and Richard White's house (across the field) to have lunch. Will(and the rest of us) sat outside on their new and improved patio (I forgot my pictures,sorry) and ate a hot dog. Then we jumped on the boat and went fishing!!! The weather was perfect and hardly any wind-amazing for Idaho. It was everything I thought it would be and then some. Look at this perfect day.

ABOVE: Will is sitting at the back of the boat just waiting for the "big one" to bite (it never did).
Kim is back there helping Will fish. After almost hooking him in the eye (yes, his good one) she was fired. But we sure laughed. Aaron is fishing on the other side of the boat. He was the only one, of six who fished, who caught any fish (4).

ABOVE: Angel and fishing just don't get along. So she brings a book. My mom even got a fishing license but she didn't get a worm wet, maybe next time.

Above: Here is my mom's dog, Tinker. She has a yellow doggie life preserver on. So Will put his life preserver on so Tinker wouldn't feel so embarrassed.

ABOVE: Will is taking a break from fishing and is enjoying a rice krispie treat. He's got it rough, doesn't he? Hayley and Riley White are fishing in the front of the boat. I guess Will didn't share his treats with them.

ABOVE: Aaron is bragging to Will about the "big" one he just caught.

ABOVE: On the way back to the dock, the sun went down and it got cold, even for Will. Poor Will, he had to squeeze in between those two.


This is one of my favorite quotes about mothers:

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

For all you mothers out there-you know what I'm talking about.

MOTHER'S DAY 2009, WILL GO DOWN IN MY HISTORY AS ONE OF THE BEST!
I hope your day was as great as mine and I thank God that I was able to have my mom and my two kids with me.

GOD BLESS

May 7, 2009

What a beautiful day we had today, well at least the afternoon was pretty. The morning was rainy but even that was beautiful because the wind wasn't blowing.

Will is feeling good and today he goes to dialysis. He won't feel like it tonight but I bet we get the boat out this weekend FINALLY. That's all I want for Mother's Day is a good time on our boat and a little fishing thrown in. I can't think of anything better.

So that was a gentle reminder for everyone to not forget their mothers on Mother's Day this Sunday. If they are still with you-celebrate, and if they are not, remember and celebrate. Mother's are great people and I happen to have my fabulous mom close to me and my wonderful step-mom not too far away in Boise. I feel very blessed.

We go back to Salt Lake in the first week of June. They will be so surprised. We were just talking about how much we miss all of our wonderful friends in the hospital. If you are reading this, we love you all and will see you soon.

Will has been spending a lot of time with the TV set watching the Boston Celtics kick some serious fanny. They are very, very good. If you haven't been watching the playoffs-you are missing out. It's great to have Will able to watch the game. He doesn't get it all, but I remember last year in ICU listening to the game on XM radio because he couldn't see the TV at all. Will has come a long way since then. Thank you God.

We will have some great pictures of Mother's Day on Sunday night. Have a great rest of the week.

GOD BLESS

Sunday, May 3, 2009

HERE ARE MY TWO DARLINGS HAMMING IT UP WITH THE "DUKE"
I know several of you are wondering---
yes, that is a life size cutout of John Wayne
in our family room (it's really called the John Wayne Room).
We have pictures of him on all the walls.

Here is a fun picture of them trying to teach the dog, Roxie, to sit and behave at the dinner table. No, she does not eat with us at the table. Roxie's not even allowed on the chairs.

I wanted a picture of Angel's little bump, which is now changing into a very big bump.
Angel is trying to make Will talk to his niece but he's not buying into it at all.

This is a great picture. Will is on the four wheeler and he took it for a drive down the lane to Brent's house. (all by himself) Angel is just trying to jump on but he left without her.

The pictures say it all. Will is feeling better and stronger than he ever has since surgery and Angel's get bigger and better.
Life is great!!
The weather was lousy all weekend again, on again off again rain and storm, so we couldn't take the boat out again. This is beginning to sound like a broken record. We are so ready.
Stay tuned, maybe we will be getting our boat out this week.

MAY IS OFFICIALLY CYSTIC FIBROSIS AWARENESS MONTH!

PLEASE GO OUT IN WILL'S NAME AND MAKE SOMEONE AWARE OF CYSTIC FIBROSIS AND THE NEED TO FIND A CURE. THANK YOU FROM OUR HEARTS-THE HARBISONS

*****************************

Someone sent this to me and I thought it was beautiful. What a way to describe our awesome God.

When I fall, He lifts me up!

When I fail, He forgives!

When I am weak, He is strong!

When I am lost, He is the way!

When I am afraid, He is my courage!

When I stumble, He steadies me!

When I am hurt, He heals me!

When I am broken, He mends me!

When I am blind, He leads me!

When I am hungry, He feeds me!

When I face trials, He is with me!

When I face persecution, He shields me!

When I face problems, He comforts me!

When I face loss, He provides for me!

HE IS OUR EVERYTHING!

GOD BLESS