well I am now 31 and have past my 1yr anniversary for my valve replacement

I have now reached my 1 yr anniversary for my pulmonary valve replacement that I had back in 2010 and am still doing great. I have gained quite a bit of weight after the surgery but am working really hard on losing it. My husband is finally home from what was a LLOOONNNGGG deployment for us our usual 6 months got turned into 10 months. My 22q11 has been ok. I do have my moments when I am just sad or down and do not understand the things that I should. My husband copes very well with it and tries to push me forward and on. I have had him home since the week before christmas and we have been very busy. We have purchased our first home, celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary along with our first since he was gone, and also went on a cruise to grand cayman islands jamaica, and also mexico, it was a blast. I am just taking things day by day now and trying to find a part time job. I am also thinking about going to school to further my hotel management degree. 

My parents are coming to visit for the weekend and have not seen my house since we have moved from base housing. We should have a great weekend even though derek has to work sunday night booo!!! that is the joys of being in the military, you are never off and always working even when it hsould be time with the family. 

He loves his job and I love and support him.

Since I have written I have became involved with a heart group called mended little hearts and LOVE it. 

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy memorial day weekend and remember what memorial day is all about and please thank a soldier!!

Finally remembered to write again

I keep forgetting to write about what all is going on and has been going on. ALOT has changed since the last time I have written anything. I am currently back in Mississippi. Every thing seems to be going ok with my health wise so far. My cardiologist that I had at keesler however , has been stationed somewhere else and I was sad to see her go. She had worked under my cardio in atlanta for about 2 years before coming here to mississippi and was a GREAT doc.

We are now 4 months away til the e nd of this deployment. I had a trip planed to go to spain, but sadly had to cancel because derek is being sent to somewhere else for the rest of the time he is gone. I was really looking forward to finally be able to travel to another country.

I am now however really enjoying taking the time making some jewlrey and catching up on scrapbooking and also sewing. I had fun doing a potted veggie garden got a few tomatos and am still getting banana peppers and also green peppers in. My squash and okra plant kicked the bucked. I love habing tomato sandwhiches in the summer time and i had the best tomatos this year except they were on the small side.

Family plans have been in the talks between me and derek and are going to attempt to begin that process next year (hopefully). Next year will also be his last full year here in Gulfport thank goodness. in 2012 we will be going elsewhere for him to do shore duty for 2 years which means he will not deploy for the 2 years that we are whever we are.

Things are going ok we have hit some rough patches here and there and of course still do.

hope everyone had a great 4th of july!

update

Well, i have not blogged in awhile and figure I should. I have been home in georgia for a month or so. I am working and visiting with family. I have also taken up sewing which I really enjoy. Derek is busy busy in spain and I got my ticket to go over for about 2 weeks in september. Not really much going on other than work. I am headed back to gulfport this weekend to check on the house. Derek and I celebrated our 1 yr wedding anniversary and of course it happend while on deployment. I am finally recovered from my surgery and am working on losing weight and so far thanks to my friend philicia for introducing me to leslie sansone dvds walking has become much funner and is paying off.
Simba is doing well and so is olivia. Olivia is getting a new brother next month which is going to be a seal mitted male named oliver. We are excited that we get him. I have a container garden planted and have 2 tomatoe plants,banana peppers, red ,green peppers,squash,okra,and cucumbers. All plants are doing great. My strawberry plants are done for the season, I did not get many off of them as id of liked :(.
4th of july is coming up and we are going to the race in daytona. My brother is supposed to be getting married sometime this summer as well and becoming a step dad. He and I both have wonderful stepsons and are blessed.
I am excited to get to spain I have never been anywhere in Europe before. This will be my first time flying over seas by myself as well. It is a 9 hour flight and flies straight into madrid.
i also have found a great gospel group that I have enjoyed listening too called sisters. i found them by going to a ladies confrence with my mom at church and really enjoyed it.
I am working on planning my spain vacation today and finding things for us to do.
I look forward to going and getting to see derek I only have about 2 months to go. after my visit derek will soon be coming home :)
I hope everyone has a safe summer

it has been a long time

It has been an extremely long time since I have done some posting on my blog. I have been keeping myself very busy while figuring out life at the same time. In doing all of that, I found out that life is just one day after the other and go on with that brand new day and forget about the rest of those days that are behind you now.

IT has been almost 2 months since my best friend has left for deployment.  cannot believe time has come and gone like it has been doing. Deployment will be over before we know it and the magnificent 7 will be back home where they belong.  A lot has happend in these past couple of weeks. It is almost book worthy haha.

Well, Easter has come and gone. During the time we are supposed to be celebrating Easter, My best friend tonya's husband got flown home from Haiti with Lung problems and have to have Lung surgery. He is doing fine now and is back to work here in gulfport.

how have I been doing you may ask? How am I doing since you've done what you did to me I can lie and sometimes cry when I think of how it used to be..with wanting Derek home like any other military spouse would, I take things day by day and one step at a time. I have made it this far and wished he could be home but I understand that he has a job to do and his job is to serve his country when duty calls. HE is very well missed around here especially as the summer months are approaching and days are getting longer , but on the brighter side the nights are shorter so that means that the next day will get here quicker.

I have had my appointment with my doctor here in gulfport. She sadly is leaving keesler and being sent elsewhere :(. She said I am doing great and am still continuing to improve. My valve is still a little bit leaky but she said that may correct itself and also my right side of my heart is also still enlarged but that will correct itself over time as well.I finally got to get off of my potassium medication and am going to have more blood work done next week to check that level.

Other than the blood work and dr alderson leaving keesler everything is going somewhat ok. I have learned in the short time that Derek has been gone who my true friends are. It is very funny how you learn that so quickly when the time comes. It all lead to things that do not need to be posted in certain places that public eye can see. A lot of military movement is hush hush and people will quickly learn that in the process.

Also a neighbors daughter was at my house while i was talking to her mother she decided to go upstaires through my stuff and also demolish my scrap book room. it goes to show you cannot take your eyes off of children at ANY time. She also pulled olivia my cat around the kitchen by her tail and also went through my jewlrey box and threw jewlrey on the floor which resaulted in me steppping on a necklace i did not see and breaking it :(.

Life is full of ups and downs and this week it has been up and down and that seems like the story of my life. I also find it hilarious that someone would DARE to think that I have not been through a hard time in my life at all like they have hahahah!!!!! That is a horse of a different color of a thought right there,

I would think 4 open heart surgeries later and also being diagnosed with an uncurable genetics disorder that nobody knows a lot about is not a hard time at all. Man, people never seem to amaze me at all. Everyday is a struggle for me than your normal average person.

Another person told me that I must be insecure in my marriage to have to talk to my husband everyday and also must be very clingy.
I am secure with my marriage and very happy. Derek and I choose to talk everyday and Derek wants to talk to me everyday that he possibly can. It is good for what I Have and helps me get through my day. IF for some reason i cannot talk to Derek without knowing he will not be able to get online I start to worry. Eventhough, Derek has been in the military for 10 yrs now and nothing has happend to him, I am still going to worry.

I see life totally different than most people see it. it has been said that I am judgemental and I am far from being judgemental. I have been judged and judged all threw my growing up years. I know first hand what it is like. trying to help someone is not being judgemental. I

Oh well you cannot please all the people all of the time, a president of the united states once said. The more I learn about people the more I agree with the president that said that.
Well I am off of here for now, I figured it was time for me to do an update since i have been getting asked to write.
I am also very excited to announce that I have lost 12lbs! I am doing weight watchers again and am doing very well with it. I head to Spain in August for 2 weeks. August is when hubby re enlists again for another few years :).

Derek is greatly missed everyday. I love him with all of my heart and he is my best friend and I will always love him no matter where the road of life takes us <3

finally this time we got the computer working once AGAIN

Ok so I originally thought my computer was back up and running last night and low and behold da da da daaaa i was wrong!!!!!!. I had to go back to the apple store today, I drug Tonya and Gus man along (she is such a great friend and I love her to death) and we took the computer and switched it for a new one.

Then we did a little bit of shopping and since it was free ice cream day at ben and Jerrys we stopped at the one in new orleans and got us some ice cream.

Gus seemed to love it he was wearing it! It was very crowded the news station from new orleans was there.
We also saw a saints football player i think it was number 23. He was getting ready to start scooping ice cream.

Other than that not much went on when I got home, I got the new computer up and running, fed simba outside so that he would not drop food everywhere and also sat on my swing that mom and dad bought down over the weekend, it is very comfy.

IT was a very nice and mild day and also sunny out. I left the windows open in the living room so that Olivia and Sassy cat could watch outside. I had also moved my bird feeder from the back to the front so that Olivia and sassers could watch them there.

Olivia seems to like to sit in the recliner and watch. Sassy just seems to do whatever she wants to do. Simba stayed outside all day and I am hoping he is go ing to be worn out when he comes in tonight. I have given him his cottage cheese so that he can get that all over the yard lol.

I talked to derek for a little bit today. I do not think he is quite used to the idea that I am actually out and about and what not now compared to how i used to be. I used to not want to leave the house and do anything but now I am enjoying having friends around me and enjoying life a lot more than I was before hand.

I think everyone is finally over the stomach bug that has been going around. I was trying to get it again last night but I think it finally left my system. I can barely talk but it is ok. I am hoping to start job hunting this week or next week to help out with the finances a little more so I am somewhat excited about doing that.

Other than that everything is going good. Life is great life is good life just gets better for me everyday and I love it!!!!!
That is all for now

ok finally back up and running....

After a long week I finally have my computer back. I had to take my computer into the apple store the other week due to the power supply not draining out completely. It would not turn on after it turned off go figure something has to go wrong when Derek leaves as usual.

So this week kind of flew by which is surprising. Thanks to my friend tonya she kept me busy busy busy. WE also had our frg meeting this month. Everyone at the meeting seemd to have some kind of stomach bug and low and behold I came down with it over the weekend which happend to be the weekend we were going to go see the play HairSpray at the beau rivage with little miss tonya.

I unfortunately spent friday night puking and what not. Saturday I felt a little bit better but not enough to sit through a play:(

Mom and dads visit went ok.  they only stayed through today.

I have talked to Derek just about everyday since he has been gone. He has been doing good. He is sick with a sinus infection I think.

Not much else is going on here. I have decided to step up and take the secretary position for the FRG.

I am gearing up to do some serious exercising at the gym and work on some serious weight loss. I am really fed up with all the weight i have gained and finally getting tired of family staying on my back about it.

Other than that heart wise I am doing really good. I had another post op visit with doctor book and she said everything looked really good. I need to schedule an appointment here with dr alderson in june and then go back to dr book after the summer.

Dereks birthday is coming up so I have to get a package ready to send to him this week he is turning 28!!!!!!!!!

Another uneventful day

Well, another day is over with. What has happened today you are wondering? ABSOLUTELY nothing. I spent the day talking to Derek. He has to do room inspections on Monday and had some guys that did not want to clean their rooms I guess and so he had to go back and re inspect their rooms this evening and then he got back online and talked to me.
We discovered some more new neat stuff on our macs. We have discovered that we can view each others screen while on messenger which is really neat. We also got on webcam together. I am working on a slide show of pictures from when we were dating up till when we got married. 
I let him see what I have gotten done so far while we were connected screen to screen.
Other than talking to Derek nothing else really happened today. My dad and I went out and walked, the day was pretty nice it was about 70 degrees outside and somewhat cloudy. After that we got back to the house and my mom came home from going to get Kyle my cousin who just had a brain tumor removed and to pick up his youngest Caroline from school.
I am also starting to work on putting my step son's easter basket together to send to him, he lives in Lake Mary Florida. 
I have to re do my spain hotel reservations as their policy has changed for reserving rooms which I think is stupid. They said due to space A we cannot book a room until 30 days prior to arriving. Apparently the policy changed right after we booked and they decided to cancel our reservation sooooo, I am going to have to remember to do it before I leave,
I am also still watching airline tickets to spain. They have stayed the same so far and have not gone up nor down. I plan on flying to madrid and Derek is going to hop on a train and pick me up and we will take the train back to base. I hope Tonya will get to go with me.
As far as family planning and what not. We have found a possibility of avoiding passing on 22q11 to our child at the Emory Genetics Clinic here in Atlanta which is pretty exciting. We are looking forward to trying to get a referral for there when Derek comes home. 
A month has almost passed since Derek has been gone and everything is going good so far and it just seems to be going slow for some reason as it always does during deployments but time sure does fly when he is at home.
I told him today it feels like he is back in Italy again where he was when we met, so I am hoping it wont be any big deal.
Other than not much going on my cardiologist appointment is tomorrow. I am hoping that everything goes good and hoping to go back to our little house in Gulfport.
I miss seeing my friends and NAVY family. 
Tonight dad cooked chicken on the grill and I made mashed cauliflower which turned out really good. It is also good for you. 
I am about to go to bed since I have to be in Atlanta in the am at 8. It takes us about a half hour to get there from the house plus more probably now that it is going to be raining and right in the middle of rush hour traffic.
As Jeff dunham put it one time the problem with rush hour traffic is that every body leaves the house at the same dang time and then at 5pm it is the same thing but vs versa. 
Anyhow I think I am ending this blog here with this thought........
A military marriage is very trying and tough. IT makes the heart grow founder of the one that is away and also makes you appreciate each other even more than you have before.
You miss them , but do not take the fact for granteed that technology is better than the older days where they only had letters to write home.
Today there is computers,letters, and cell phones etc. No matter what the choice of staying in touch with loved ones, it is I am sure always a very heart felt conversation. You cherish every word that they say and the time you get to speak with them.
Well this is all for now. I miss Derek more than yesterday and today and even more tomorrow, the resault of the doctor appointment will be discussed on here tomorrow and I will probably be heading back to gulfport depending on what time we get out of there and how bad the weather is.

another monday

ok sooooooooo, another monday has came and gone and a new week has started. Not much went on today I went to work with my mom and my dad is sick. I talked to Derek on and off he had gotten his mac book in the mail and was excited.

I am also doing research on how to start a family with all of this cardiac stuff and 22q11. I found out that they do genetic counseling here in atlanta and help point you in the right direction as to where you need to go.

I have done a lot of researching on it the past few weeks. I hope to make an appointment soon with a genetics counselor and see what process I need to go about.

I have a cardiologist appointment on wednesday and am hoping I will be clear to drive. I also hope to be cleared to go back to my little house in gulfport mississippi where all of my friends are.

I miss Derek more and more as our 1st anniversary of when we got married is coming up.

Even though he is just a phone call away it is still not the same when you are used to having him home at 10am or before for the rest of the day.

It is a big adjustment for me this time since he is going to be gone for 10 months instead of 6. I do not really understand why since I thought that they were on rotation. but, Derek said their rotation is off and they had to do a 10 month one to get back on.

It is stressful since I have never lived on my own or in another state away from my family and I am taking on some major responsibility that I have never done before. My biggest adjustment was the fact that I have never lived on my own. I had to get used to that and so far am doing ok.

Well, other than a slow monday and going to have lunch with a family friend not much has happened today.

I am hoping that the week will get more interesting when I get back to gulfport. I will also do updates on doctor appointments etc as well.

I hope every one had a funner/more interesting day than I did.

new week starting

Well another weekend without Derek as came and went. This weekend not much went on. Talked to Derek most of the weekend. Friday night I went and ate chinese with my mom and we did a little shopping, Saturday we went and visited my cousin who had a brain tumor taken out and is doing great and getting better each day. We also spent time with their 3 kids. Bowen, Charley and Caroline. Bowen and Charley are a boy and girl twin and are 5 years old. Caroling is 4 and quite entertaining.

Saturday night we met up with my brother and his fiance and took my dad out to dinner to outback. I had steak and some kind of stuffed shrimp and it was really good. My brother and Stacy have not yet set a wedding date this will be both of theirs second marriage , but I really like her and her little boy Brandon.

Today (Sunday) nothing really happened. My dad and brother went to the nascar race today. My mom was going to go but my brother decided to go the last minute. Derek woke me up early and we talked most of the morning and afternoon.

Later on in the afternoon I went to eat with one of my older cousins that was my maid of honor in my wedding at a place called PF Chang's an upscale Chinese restaurant. I love chinese food in case you could not tell lol.

Derek seemed to be doing good. Not much going on with him lately. He has ordered a new mac laptop and is waiting for it to arrive and should be there this week. We are trying to plan a vacation for next summer since he will be back home during the summer. We are also watching plane tickets for my flight over to spain to visit him for 2 weeks this summer and I cannot wait. I have never been anywhere out of the country except the Bahamas and st. marten.

I have an appointment with my cardiologist wednesday to check up on things since the surgery and maybe I will be told I can finally drive even though I do not like too.

Yesterday i also went to a fabric store and got some really cute fabric and cant wait to see how what i am making turns out.

One thing that I have already learned from this deployment is that your marriage is really tested when your loved one goes over seas and makes you appreciate the times that you have spent together and look forward to the times you will have when they come home.

I have a lot going on this month and will be back and forth from home to gulfport. I am especially excited to get back here the 27th to meet my favorite tv guy, dog the bounty hunter. It turns out that his father was a navy seabee also.

There will be more tomorrow since it is monday and I am going into work with my mom to have lunch with some of our friends.

It has been nice being home for awhile and seems like time flies by , but i miss my friends in gulfport and also my cute little house that I love. I also miss Derek but that is a given there. His birthday is coming up the first of april and also our 1 yr wedding a nniversary. I have also connected with another nmcb 7 wife whom i hope to meet at the next frg :)

more tomorrow until then take care and love your seabee :)

cat bath

Not much went on today. I talked to Derek for most of the afternoon on yahoo. After that I cleaned up the kitchen and living room and messed around with the cats for awhile. Simba likes to stay outside at mom and dads house and guard the goats he think apparently that is his job.

On the other hand, I have to send Derek his black foot locker to Spain since he has now found a place to play paintball over there. Leave it to my husband to find somewhere over seas to play paintball.

This evening I gave sassy our Himalayan cat a bath. She actually did pretty good for a cat to have a bath. She cried a little bit but finally sat down in the sink. I am thinking I like that type of cat more and more now. I have an ambition to want to show cats now as crazy as it sounds.

Toe nail trimming is going to be done later on tonight with both cats. I cannot wait to see how that goes olivia is one to not like to have anything done with. Sassy on the other hand could care less what you do to her and it is obvious. This is my last weekend home and saturday I plan on going to eat lunch with one of my cousins. Sunday my parents are going to the nascar race.

I have my cardiologist appointment on the 10th and I hope to leave that afternoon or that following thursday. Not much else is planned. I have basically done my stuff for spain just am watching airline prices before i decide on my ticket

I am actually flying into madrid and have found a nonstop flight to there which will be good. I have booked my room at the inn and suites on base so that is all taking care of.

I have less than a month to go and Derek and I will be married for a year. it is hard to believe that a year has flown by so maybe this heaven for bid deployment will fly by too.

well that is all for now. I wished I would have gotten pictures of sassy when she was wet. She will get a bath at the end of next month, so I will have to take pictures then.

I love my animals like they are human!

I am getting ready to s tart planning my front yard planting and am excited. I love to plant stuff and so I am hoping it will turn out neat. I am also wanting to find a mini fountain to maybe put in the yard :).

My mother bought me some sparkly nail polish today a wizard of oz color set. It is really cute she even painted her nails. Mine are sparkly blue and it is called Dorothy who?

Well that is all for today, I hope since tomorrow is Friday I will have something exciting to happen to write about.

Snowy day

Today it snowed. It started this am but did not stay around long. We got maybe an inch if that and it is already half melted. The goats, lu lu and clemintine, were in the barn for once and stayed in the pasture. The last snow I was told that they got out of the pasture and was walking around the front yard. Simba did not really like the snow this time , but went outside under pro test.
Derek called today. He still has to muster 2 times a day which stinks. He said the weather was nice over there. He also has a birthday coming up the first of next month, so I have to get his package together. He said not much is going on at work but doing building inspections, which is what I think he likes to do anyways.
The snow finished up at about 3 this afternoon. Now it is cold, wet and nasty tonight. The tempuratures right now are above freezing , but they probably will drop over night and all the wetness will probably turn into ice. There isn't much more going on around here.
Last night I went to my cousin Amy's house and played with her kids. The oldest Davis w ho is 6 about to be 7 had a baseball game last night. They won their game and he said he made a really good play. Mom and I stayed with Max and Carson.
Max was into everything possible and Carson was just crawling around. We watched the bachelore and After that we left to go home.
That is really all we have done lately. My dads birthday is this week and he is going to the nascar race this weekend.

crazy musters

Ok i got to talk to Derek on the phone a little bit ago. There seems to always be someone who has to get them in trouble. They have to muster 2 times now because some people do not want to wake up in the mornings and show up for actual muster. I wished i could tell the ones that do not want to get up and muster to wake their rear ends up and get in gear!!!

Other than that, I am missing my friends in mississippi still. Hopefully i will be back down soon. My friend nicole won a contest on wlox news she got some kind of spa package and dinner deal at the IP casino that sounds like fun.

I on the other hand am bored stiff at home in atl. having trouble sleeping here. I hope i sleep better when i get back to gulfport. I went to visit my cousin kyle last night. he had a brain tumor taking out this month and is home and is doing great. I played with his 3 kids bowen charley and caroline.

Caroline always wants to know where derek is when he is not with me. I told her he was in Spain and since she is only 4 years old she asked where the heck is spain. I told her it was across the ocean and she said WOAH!!! She also thought it was funny.

It was also my other cousin's kylas birthday she turned 6. She is having her bday party on sunday at a jumping place. We celebrated her actual birthday last night. The girls put on a little hannah montana concert for their daddy. Bo was the spotlight man and did really good. Kyla and Caroline were hannah montana and miley.

We had fun at their house last night. Got home kind of late. I went to work with mom yesterday and got really bored. I decided to stay home today but woke up kind of congested.

Derek said he would not be online today since their has to be some lazy people in the company. I was kind of sad but did get to talk to him on the phone

we are sitll trying to work out travel arrangements to rota and am getting more excited and counting down the days till august.

I guess that is really all for now. I plan on spending the day looking for airline tickets and also cleaning my room and grooming my himilayan cat sassy.

Everybody misses Derek as usual , but am excited for me to get to go and visit spain.

updates

ok Derek has been gone for a few days now to Rota Spain. I would much rather him be there than in a war zone. The only problem is that he is going to be gone for 10 months :( but on the brighter side I am going to go visit him in August and hopefully my side kicks tonya and Gus will be joining me as well :) I miss Derek more and more everyday. I am back home in atlanta for a follow up doctors appointment on March 10,2010 and then after that I will go back to Gulfport. I have been talking to Derek almost everyday and that helps the situation.

I have been doing ok since my surgery. I however am experiancing dizzy spells which I hoped would go away but aren't. I also am missing my friends back in Gulfport, but I will be back next month.

Tonya mom and jimmys mom are planning to go see Hair Spray when I get back. It is one of my favorite plays and I am excited for a girls night. We are going to see that March 20th for Tiny's birthday. I am so glad i have made such great friends. This deployment is a whole lot easier than the last and I am greatful for the time I get with Derek and my navy family in Gulfport.

That is all for now, I have to go and chase down kitties and simba (who misses his daddy).

I miss derek like crazy, but am hanging in there.

More later bye bye for now....

valentines weekend.

Friday Derek got the day off due to icy weather. Yup that is right icy weather in southern mississippi. Never thought it could be possible, but it started sleeting and then it snowed for 5 minutes. Nothing major really happened, they did however close schools in harrison county which I found rather hysterical. We basically sat around the house for awhile, did a little house work, and later that evening we watched Paranormal activity, which I will never watch again.

Saturday, we went to my first mardi gras parade with our friends Matt, Mich, and little cheyanne. We had a blast and got tons of beads. It was more fun that going to new orleans. Also on Saturday evening, we added a new addition to our family. We added a Himalayan kitty we adopted. I have wanted one for quite sometime, found her on craigs list, and new she was meant for me to have and love.

We got sassy home. She is 5 years old and grey and silver, and has the cutest little smashed in face i have ever seen. She is VERY fluffy, even fluffier than Olivia. Olivia is adjusting to her and Simba well, lets just say Simba will accept just about anything that is supposed to come into the house.

I have a very strong love for animals, and have a great husband who tries to support my animal habbit. Animals to me are like children. Each have a different personality, but wants nothing but love. Sassy is totally different from Olivia, and once they start liking each other it will be very interesting.

Tomorrow is Valentines day, it will be our first one we have spent together. We have been together for 4 years this year and every year Derek has been in another country. He however sadly leaves this week for a 10 month deployment and it is going to be a sad time for me, but I do however get to go over to where he is going and visit him :).

Well, this is all for now. I will update tomorrow on Valentines day and what we do. It is hard to believe that it has almost been a month since my heart surgery. I am glad to be back in Gulfport, but miss my family back home in atlanta as well who got snow yesterday :(. I do have mardi gras pictures that I will post later.

past couple of months of adventures for the brown family

Hi everyone, it is coming that time again for another deployment for the Brown family. We have had a very busy year this home port and lots going on with each other's family and us as well. 2010 for us has gotten off to a rough start so far so here is what all has happened.

October of 09 was a great month for us. We joined a great church down here in Gulfport. I also was baptised as well there. Shortly after Derek learned where he was going to be deployed too. IT is going to be Spain this time around and for longer than expected. Thanksgiving was spent in Missouri and Christmas was spent in Georgia.

January came, I turned 30. We also discovered that I had retained 750 milligrams of fluid around my heart that needed to be getting rid of. I was taken into keesler medical center's ER on Jan. 15 and flown to Atlanta that night to find out what needed to be done.

we knew surgery was going to happen sooner or later we were just trying to plan it out, but unfortunately it did not happen that way it needed to be done sooner rather than later. I arrived at Emory and had an MRI done. Met with the surgeon and surgery was going to be scheduled for that following friday but fortunately it got moved up sooner to wednesday the 20th.

Surgery went well. Had some trouble getting into where he needed to get too. My pig valve was replaced by a cow valve. He also did a few other repaires and made my new scar a lot smaller. I stayed in ICU for about 3 days and was moved into a regular room for a few days.

I shortly learned however after being moved into a regular room that my grandmother mrs ruth reddy had passed away right after my surgeon came out to talk to family. That was the saddest day of my life , but it was almost like she waited long enough to make sure I was going to be ok. Nannie lived to be 92 years old and lived a great life.

My husband was put on emergency leave when we were flown to atlanta and has been by my side since. We stayed in atlanta for about 2 1/2 weeks and came back to our home in gulfport. He is getting ready to leave shortly for a 10 month deployment and we will miss him terribly.

Through this short adventure I have became closer to my family and love each and everyone of them even more than I already have. I have also learned that my cousin in law had suffered from a seizure and ended up having a brain tumor and is having surgery this coming wednesday.

God has surely tested this family lately but has not given us anything we cannot handle nor make it through. I will be doing updated during deployment letting you all know what is going on and possible return dates when given. I plan on visiting derek in spain this summer.

I hope you all keep in touch through here and enjoy reading our life and adventures and thoughts. thank you everyone for your prayers and well wishes. you are greatly appreciated.