fun at the Riley River

This fun part of the Riley Atrium may have another name besides the Riley River, but for Jocelyn it is a great place to work on her throwing arm!

The video above and the one below were taken on our visit this past Tuesday.  This is another fun Jocie moment at Riley... We aren't quite sure where she got her southern accent.  Riley comes out more like Raleigh with at least three syllables.  It makes us smile and laugh!

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories from this week.  Hopefully later today I will post more about our visit to Ana's lab on Monday and the second part of our Tuesday visit with Trina, Tracy, Gin, and Dr. Yancy.

Carl's Cookies

Carl Clayton brought us some chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips :-)
They are incredible!

Light Company

Jacob taking a call from his boys from Light Company  :-)

Gladys

Gladys Muchoki



Gladys is a dear chaplain here at Riley.  God brought her to us on our last visit to Riley on Monday when we were very discouraged.  It was wonderful to hear her beautiful accent and her story.  She is from Nairobi, Kenya and has been in the States for six months.  Tomorrow night, her husband arrives.  She hasn't seen him for six months. She loves to Skype and talk to her kids and see her grandkids!

She is absolutely precious.  It was a special treat to have her come by again today.  On the last visit after she prayed in English, I asked her if she would also pray in her first language.  It was wonderful to hear her pray in her Kikuyu language.  Today, she closed her prayer in English, "In Jesus' name," and then just went right into prayer in Kikuyu.  We loved it! 

Thank you, Gladys for holding our hands and pointing us to Jesus!  Not enough American kids have been blessed to be prayed over in the Kikuyu language.  I hope Gladys continues to grow that number.  We are blessed!

New view

The view from our current room

And Lori's view

Pre Op recall

Memories from pre op last week
Dr Yancey and Zac

Slippers part two

They were so popular she bought a new pair. These have two eyes

Nite nite

Late night chillin

Ultrasound

Jacob watching ultrasound

Jocie adventures

More adventures

Lunch with cup cake

Daddy and Jocie grabbing some lunch

Laughter is Good Medicine!

We got home around 4:15pm Thursday.  From 7-8pm, the guys came over and helped devour some of the cupcakes that Chelsea & Co brought.  They also brought tons of laughter and "philisophicalness." 

The video link below is low quality, so I thought a few helps might be in order...

Christian is in the front holding Jacob's old pacemaker that Dr. Brown & Co. took out.  He also has one in his hand that is slightly larger and similar in size to the one that is now in Jacob's "belly." 

In the first part of the video (behind Jocelyn's scream), Christian implies that the pacemakers would make good gauges (a fashion statement in ears.) Jacob evidently thought that was funny!

Click here for pacemaker video

Then the dialogue continues...

• You'd be a walking pacemaker.
• He IS a walking pacemaker.

• Actually he's a walking person.  The pacemaker is just in him.

• The pacemaker is walking with him.

• Technically a pacemaker can't walk.

• This conversation is so intellectual.   I don't know that I've ever heard this...

• I would've had competition up there at Riley... with "philosophicalness"

• Probably a good thing we didn't come up.  Jacob would've never been able to get any sleep.

• Jacob didn't get any sleep.

 

After the cupcakes....
A game of Catch Phrase was in order.  You probably can't catch all of the banter in this next video, but I'm guessing that you'll enjoy watching Jacob laugh so hard.  So glad this group of guys and Chelsea came over to welcome Jacob home.  The laughter had great medicinal impact.  No one expected Christian to end the game by guessing "quantum physics!"


We were glad it was planned only from 7-8pm.  It was just the right amount of fun before we quieted down for the first night home!

Click here for Catch Phrase Video

Please keep praying for our rest and recovery. 

Jocelyn is rather clingy.  Yesterday morning when Tom said we were going home, she asked if she could come, too.  I can't quite put words on how that makes me feel.  She had a great time with PawPaw & NaNa, AND it's really good to be home together!

Today Tom found out that Ryan can travel out of town on Monday and Tuesday so Tom won't have to leave until Wednesday for an ONB project out of town.  THANKS, RYAN!!!

This afternoon I napped for three solid hours in my own bed, and it was wonderful!!!!!  Back on the air mattress in the living room with Jacob on the couch as soon as I sign off here......... ZZZzzzz......

We are all recovering and continue to be very thankful that you are along for the ride with us.  Stay tuned for follow up on the joke/photo contest from earlier this week! 

On the road!

With very thankful hearts we all head toward Evansville!!

Riley hangover

First day at Pawpaw's after Riley.
Tom feels like he was hit by a truck.

Jocie took the second picture

Exploring with Dora

We sorta think Jocie might've gotten into TV too much while at PawPaw & NaNa's!

Fun with PawPaw & NaNa

While we were away,

PawPaw & NaNa found out that Jocie really gets into her sticker books!

Leaving Riley

He looks good

Reunited with Jocie

Jacob was very happy to see Jocie

Hair

Back to normal, hair washed and phone in hand.

The last walk

Last walk between Riley and the        Ronald M c Donald house.

Echo

On way to echo

Thinking of Jocie

We miss our little cupcake

Monster Truck

A visit from a monster truck last weekend

Our view

Here is the view out of our window.

That is a brick wall
I'm thinking about counting the bricks

Caption this

........

The things I do for my kids

For the record I Did not volunteer for this.

I thought wiping butts was bad enough.
Jacob is bored so no telling what ill have to do next.
SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE

Jocie visit

Jocie chose a different approach when sitting next to Mr Riley

Caption this

Need a few laughs today
Can you help us by posting a caption for this photo.

James Whitcomb Riley

Mr Riley didn't know what to think of these two. Macie and Deedra

The girls

Macie Lori and Deedra

They were such good sports
Still searching for the picture of Macie throwing the Discus

Go HOOSIERS!

Another reason to love IU

Counseling session

Lori misses Marcia so much that she decided to give Ronald a try.

Visitor philisophicalness

Macie and Deedra stop by and take the  philisophicalness challenge.
How did they do?

CT Scan play area

The bottom picture is the play area outside of the CT scan room.
The real one Jacob used was much bigger.  His headache will not break and he has been very snotty and sneezy.  :(  It's made for a difficult recovery from the surgery. They are trying to see if he might have a sinus infection.
 

Special request

Lori said take a picture of the frog.
She didn't know I had this little guy saved already.

So here is a frog on the lobby of Riley.
Jocie loves the frog and turtle

It helps to talk

I hope to have a talk with this guy later.
I think he might be able to understand me.

My morning walk

Every time I walk across this intersection between Ronald McDonald House and Riley, I remember 17.5 years ago when I was pushing my post c section wife in a wheel chair, only to have her jump out of there chair and sprint across the street without warning. She was in the wheel chair because she was not supposed to be walking, I guess running was OK though. I imagined it looked funny with me chasing her with an empty wheel chair.
Lori is one tuff cookie and maybe a little crazier than most of you would think she can be.
She cracks me up sometimes

The monitor

We stare at this screen far too much.
Sometimes good sometimes................

More Jocie

Jocie with her bear's new outfit from the Riley family. Stephanie and Chelsea Riley that is.

Dr Jocie

Jocie made a visit today and we gave her the gifts from Chelsea and Stephanie.
Here she is working on Nanna , she loves her doctor kit. It was good to see her but hard to let her go.

visitors

I know you can't tell for sure but Jacob had a visit from Chelsea and Stephanie Riley. Chelsea is the one hiding on the left.

Thanks for the visit he did do much better once you got here.