Random Update

Well the holidays seem far behind us and I realized that I had not posted since well before that. I guess that these times have a way of getting ahead of us. To look back, we had a great time in Orlando for Christmas! Santa of course found us way down there and everyone had a great time.

Things have started to settle back down now and we are getting back to the routine. We did have a large (for the south) snow two weeks ago that was around 6". The boys enjoyed playing in and I will try to post a couple of pictures. I had forgotten how pretty snow is to look at but annoying to play in. the boys would go out get soaking wet in 10 minutes, I would let them stay out as long as I could, make them come inside, tracking snow all over the place, get them warmed up and by that time they were ready to go out again. It was a long couple of days. Luckily Robin was able to come over the second day and give me break (by break I mean that I got to go to work).

Slepping had gotten much better around here. The boys now go to sleep by themselves, in their own rooms, and sleep until 6. We have come up with a system of a night light on a timer so that the night light goes off at 6. So far they will still wake up around 5, go to the bathroom but then get back in their bed until the light goes off.

While I am bragging, Jakob is doing very well in school his reading is really coming along and his math skills are excellent (I have to admit I probably push the math harder :) this should come as a shock to no one that knows me. Tae is also progressing well ad his speech is constantly improving.

I know that there continue to be a lot of prayers for us. This is the only way that I can explain how we have been able to make it this far. We still have an awesome support group surrounding us. Our little church is still taking good care of us, and my work has been incredibly supportive. Just as an example, I has to go get Tae from school this week and I took him into my office for a little while just to try to get a couple of things done. As I walked in the president of the company was in meeting in his office with the door closed. he noticed Tae and motioned for him to come over. He opened his office and talked to Tae for while and just asked how everything was going and then gave him a stuffed animal to play with. It is really nice to work at a place that does not just give lip service to being 'family friendly'

To sum up things are still going well and God is still good.

Recovering well

Sorry for the long time before posts. Jakob is doing well and seems to be back up to normal speed. He still complains about his stomach hurting but it is only when he thinks about going to school :).

Tae had his birthday party tomorrow at the museum and he is really looking forward to it. Sleeping is going well and that has helped me a lot.

Two good stories to tell, Jakes first:

When my dad took Jake to the hospital he was talking to the dr and he says 'we need to look at surgery.' Jake familiar with the concept of surgery but not the context exclaims 'ON ME????'

Tae story is from before the surgery. When Jake was sick and we were trying to get him to eat and we were listing out all of the things he could eat and as Tae is sitting there shoving his dinner in his mouth aswering to each thing 'I eat it!!, I eat it! I eat it!.'

Well I am tired tonight but wanted to at least give at least a quick update.

More later.

hospital Take #...I lost count

Well we are back at the hospital again (Wake Med, one that has not come up in the rotation for a while). Jakob had his appendix taken out last night. He had been complaining of pain after trowing up on monday we we just thought it was a bug. But after an untrasound "just to be sure" he was admitted into the hospital and had surgery last night around 11:00. He has been doing GREAT today and even this morning was getting in and out of the bed by himself and walking to the bathroom. The dr said since it had perferated some to expect to be in the hospital for 5-7 days but I am hoping with the speedy recovery and Jake being so strong it might be less.

My dad was able to come up on Wednesday to help out and my Mom is coming up tonight to help for the weekend.

We are doing well and I will post more as I know more.

Weekend plans

Welcome again. I hope that all of you found your way from the carepages. As I was thinking about going to the RUF reunion in Clemson this weekend I was obvisously thinking a lot about Shannon and the times that we spent there. I then started thinking about creating some memories from Shannon's earlier days before the boys. As most of you know my memory is about as poor as it gets so if any of you would feel confortable positng or emailing me some of your favorite Shannon memories I would love to keep them to share with the boys so that they can know what a special legacy they cary on. I would also love some pictures as I can not seem to find many from my time at Clemson.

Anyway, I think that this is more than I have ever written in one day (dissertation included) so I will say good night and Love you all!

First Post

This is a continuation of the carepages updates for Shannon Dodd. I thought that I would move over here to give people a chance to not have to read the post anymore and to give these updates a little bit more of a permanent home. In case anyone wants to follow the history of what happened with Shannon's 14 month battle with cancer, they can go to www.carepages.com and search for ShannonDodd.

I will write more once I get the update onto the carepages telling people where to go.