Courtright Family Vacation

This past week, Tom, Maddie and myself spent a week in Gaylord MI, with my Mom's side of the family. We had such a great time seeing all of my family. Many traveled from Virgina and also from Florida. Of course there were a lot of Michiganders as well. :) We spent some time at Lake Michigan, traveled to the Mackinac Bridge and even got out golfing. The weather couldn't have been better that's for sure. It was so wonderful watching my Grandma enjoy all of her great-grand kids and laughing with her own kids. We can't wait to do it again!! Here are some great pictures from the trip.

More Pics...

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday. We took them at home on the porch after the park. :) She is getting so old.

Pictures by the river...

This morning, Maddie and I took a walk down to the park by the river. It's a hot one out today...really more muggy. Yuk. Anyway, we took some pictures in her pretty white (at that time, clean) dress. She's such an angel really, letting me take pictures of her all the time. I'm sure she must get sick of it. Her and Jackson will probably ban Melissa and I from having cameras at their wedding. ;)

Star Wars & Baseball!!

A dream come true for Maddie; there was Star Wars AND baseball in one place!!! :) As many of you know Maddie LOVES Star Wars and she loves the baseball (especially when watching with Daddy snuggled up in bed). This past Saturday while I was assisting Melissa with my first wedding of the season with her (yeh!!! So fun, more about that later) Tom went with my Sister Vicky, nephew Kellen and Maddie to the Whitecaps for a Star Wars themed baseball game. They had a blast. Although Maddie didn't want to get toooooo close to Darth Vader, she did love it. :) She gave a Stormtropper a high five and got to run, run, run!! :) Thanks Vic for inviting them to go.

Maddie's First "M"

This morning Maddie wanted to color. :)

We have been working on "M's" for Maddie for a few days now and today she wrote TONS of them all on her own. :) Saying "up down, up down, M for Maddie!!!! YEH!!!" So cute.

She also is drawing circles. Not perfect yet, but she's doing great!! I'm a proud Mommy today. (everday really) :)

What a sweetie...

Our darling nieces make these flower crowns for Maddie when they are all outside playing. I just had to post a couple of pictures with one on. They are so beautiful. Maddie loves her crowns...princess in the making I say.

Smooches from Dylan

Silly Faces

Now...many of you know that Jackson Burkholder is whom Maddie is betrothed too...this is still very true. They are going to get married someday, we just don't know when. However, this past weekend Maddie got a few smooches from her buddy Dylan. :) Our friends Doug and Dorthy invited us up to their cottage to enjoy some sun and fireworks. We had a great time! Even got a little swimming in. ;)

Here are a few shots of the kids. They had a BALL together. Played and laughed all night.

A Day on the Lake

Today we went out to Grand Haven to meet up with the Vander Walls that are boating there for the weekend. They got a new boat that is absolutely beautiful!! This was Maddie's maiden voyage and she LOVED it. "Uncle Jay Go FAST!" she would yell. :) Of course she was safe in her bright pink life jacket. :) She ended up being quite tuckered out and feel fast asleep in my lap. The Heins spent the early afternoon with us as well, which was a great surprise. I love when things actually work out when planned!! :) Thanks for joining us you guys!! Thanks to Jason and Johanna for letting us crash for the day, we had a blast!!

Happy 4th of July!! (Thanks Heins!)

We spent the Forth of July with our good friends Aaron, Brooke and Carson Hein. We crashed Brooke's parents home on Spring Lake (they are on an Alaskan Cruise) and grilled out. We had a wonderful time! Maddie just loved the ducks and walking on the dock. Carson is 8 months now and is such a doll. Crawling all over the place and pulling himself up. ( I think they'll have an early walker...) :) We stayed up for the fireworks there were actually in Grand Haven, but we could see them from the end of the dock. :) Maddie actually stayed up until then and was a basket case. :) She just got up from a three hour nap (thank God). :) Thank you so much Aaron and Brooke for hanging out and letting us stay!! Hugs and Love!

Grill out at Vander Walls

On Sunday we spent the afternoon at the Vander Walls for a Summer grill out. The 'Dan' Hosfords, VanSoests, Savickas's, Greendlands and Willsons were also there. Good food and great times. :) Here are some cute pictures from the afternoon. Maddie and Talen Wilson had a great time together. :)

Home and Happy

Wanted to let you all know that don't know already, that Tom's Dad came home on Sunday evening. It was all if Gloria could play nurse well enough to give Jamie two shots of blood thinners a day for the week. (ish) She was trained and is doing a great job. Doesn't hurt a bit does it Dad?? :)
Jamie is taking it easy. * Easy as Jamie Hosford can and still be Jamie Hosford. :)

We are just happy to have him home and CANCER FREE!. :)

Update

I wanted to post a quick update on Papa Hosford. Indeed the tumor removed was cancer. But it's OUT, so that's really all that matters. There were no other spots found on the MRI, so he is now cancer free! We couldn't be happier. Now what is keeping him at the hospital is his blood. They must get his Cumitin (blood thinners) levels to 'normal' or between 2-3. They were at zero yesterday, so he was told a stay until Wednesday is the plan. Of course Dad is getting a bit restless, being stuck in one room. That leads me to the next thing. Tom and I are bringing this laptop up for him to use until he gets home. That will at least get him back in the tech world a bit. :) So, unless I pop on my parents computer to post; this will be that last one for a little while. He needs this more than we do. :)

Love and huge thanks to you all.

Little sweetie

Madilyn is now asking "what is this Mommy?" and "Ooooo that is sooo cute".

But our favorite saying right now is " Hi Daddy, How ya do'n Daddy?" and when he replies with 'Great how are you Maddie', she will say "Fine thank you." HA! She's something else.

Talk, talk, talk. All the time. :) It's so fun.

Jamie's Doing Well After Surgery

Thank you for all the phone calls, notes and concerns! Jamie is doing great after his kidney removal last night. The surgery, including prep totaled about 3 hours. He had a little longer recovery, because he loves to sleep. :) AKA, they couldn't wake him from his good drugs. :) We are so happy that everything went well and the tumor is out. They pathology results will be in either Saturday or Monday.

Jamie will now be placed on the blood thinners to help with the blood clots. It's going be a waiting game now. Hopefully he will be able to come home at the beginning of next week. Keep the prayers coming!! Thanks everyone for your love and support.

Update on Jamie

A quick update on Papa Hos:

Jamie had the "filter" procedure last evening to help stop any blood clots that may try to move. That procedure went very well, and very quickly. He has begun small amounts of blood thinners at this time, but will received a high dosage after he has surgery tomorrow due to any bleeding that could occur. Yes he has to go through surgery too. He is strong so we know he will be a trooper. The "mass" that was found on Jamie's kidney is cancerous so his kidney will be removed tomorrow afternoon at 2PM. Well, I should say "they are very certain" it's cancer, but of course they can't say for sure until it is checked after it's out. They said due to it's matter, size and it being on the kidney it looks very much like a cancerous tumor. I guess cancer on the kidneys can reoccur very often that it is procedure to just remove it totally. We completely trust Dr. Fawcet and the staff that is attending to this, so out it comes.

Although this was not something he ever expected, he is taking it very well. He is a fighter and for all of you that know him, heck even have met him once, you would know that. We are so thankful for the wonderful Spectrum staff that are taking such good care of him. With prayers and steady hands he will be back to his good ole self soon. :) He will most likely be in the hospital receiving the blood thinners for a week. Please keep the prayers coming not only for Jamie for the entire family. This has been quite the year.

Love you all! I will post something after the surgery.

More prayers please...

Tom's Dad had an unexpected trip (and now stay) to the hospital today. He has been feeling kind of funny for a couple of weeks now; having a swollen ankle, on and off pain in his left arm and some aching in the chest. Well, this morning he thought he was having a serious heart attack and ended up at the Med center, only to be taken by ambulance to the ER. He thankfully was NOT having a heart attack but he did have two blood clots in his lungs causing this horrible pain. He was admitted right away, put on blood thinners and will have a procedure to put a "filter" of sorts near his heart to catch any clots. We are so thankful that the clots decided to head that way and not to the heart.

On another note, during the MRI he had they saw a mass on one of his kidneys. A biopsy will be taken of that while they are doing the other procedure. Obviously we are keeping positive about this, but MORE PRAYERS are needed. Jamie is doing well as he can, taking pain medication and being on total bed rest at the hospital. They suspect a 5-7 day stay.

Please pray for the entire Hosford Clan, this will be yet another hurdle we will jump.

Good Having You Home Grandma!!

All of your prayers are working!!!

After a little scare and a trip back to the hospital, my Mom is home for good now. After my last post, my Mom came home but her stay was very short. Not even 24 hours to be exact. There was a complication with the pain medications that were prescribed and her BP meds, and she fainted at home. Luckily my Dad was right there to help, and the doctors were on the phone immediately. They told my Dad to get my Mom to the hospital right away. After everything was regulated, she was feeling much better. In fact after her second day back in the hospital, a little more of her vision came back!! The more and more this happens only makes my Moms spirits better. They sent her home after a few more nights. :) So you can see why it's GOOD TO BE HOME!

Now it's time to RELAX. There will be no running around, cooking, shopping, CLEANING, or any of that business (which is driving my Mom nuts of course). That's what her family and friends are for!! :) Maddie is a big help, not only with the house (I know you're thinking child labor laws) but she helps with just making my Mom smile. You can see how thankful my Mom is to be here with us and be able to kiss her granddaughter. God truly is wonderful.

Phone calls are welcome!! I know my Mom would love to hear from you all! Thank you all again for the thoughts and prayers. There truly is power in it.

Not to happy camper...

Do I really need to type anything for this picture??
This is every two year old when they are told no. :)
Still so sweet.

Mom's coming home!!

Just a quick post to let you all know that my Mom is coming home today!! She has a long recovery of course, but we are just glad to have her home. An in home therapist will be coming over to help her. They will be working on compensating for the loss of vision and will be working on her reading. That is what is frustrating her the most I think. She is not able to read at this point. She sees letters, but due to the vision, he can't put them together to make a word. All of you that really know my Mom, know that reading is a huge passion of hers, and she proof reads EVERYTHING. :) Obviously she is so thankful to be alive that she is more then willing to re-learn these things. It's just a tough thing to go through. I got her a couple books on CD's to keep her busy. :)

I know that she would love to see so many of you, so please feel free to call and or stop by. Company and conversation is what is keeping her from going nuts these days. She can't read to pass the time; watching T.V. is extremely hard to do and staring into space just isn't all that fun. :) So, please take the time to stop by if you can. :)

Thanks again everyone you are the best!!

Update on my Mom

First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone for the wonderful comments, thoughts and prayers. I have told my Mom about all of the notes from here, e-mails and texts to her, and she is very thankful and overwhelmed. I'm telling you, even when she went through the car accident three years ago and now this, she is still shocked that so many people care THIS much about her. My Mom has always been extremely humble. So, I promised her I would say THANK YOU to you all. :)

I didn't really give much detail in my first note, because I was on the Hospital PC and there was a huge line. My laptop only had so much juice left. :) The surgery was a success because they were able to remove the largest of the two tumors. The surgeon actually didn't think we was going to be able to do even that, because when he made the incision, her brain herniated. (no details needed there I'm assuming) So when this happened, they actually worked for hours trying to decrease the swelling of her brain and get it back in without damage. Once he was successful with that ( and apparently there were some thoughts they he wasn't going to be able-Insert GODs hands) he was able to lift the lower left lobe and remove the large tumor. I firmly believe that it was God that allowed the surgeon to make that last gutsy call and have to courage to do it. He actually made the comment that he was going to just get the swelling under control and close her up without removing it, because of the danger. Someone helped him, I'm certain of it. :) The second smaller tumor is not removable due to it's location on the brain stem. The surgeon made a comment to us about possibly using radiation at some point to stunt the growth. That is WAY down the road and is kind of an after thought right now. That tumor is much smaller that the one that was removed. The removed tumor was the size of an egg. Yikes. She had 5 hours of recovery and was moved to the ICU where she spent the last couple of days.

Yesterday my Mom was moved from the ICU to the Nero Science Unit, still at the downtown campus. Lets just say, it was like going from a 5 start hotel to a 1 star motel. ;) She just kinda giggled at how pampered she was in the ICU. Not that she isn't getting amazing care, as of course she is, but the room is tiny and she shares it. Hopefully it won't be her home for long. The surgeon told her and my Dad that she should be able to come home by Monday or Tuesday. YEH!! She is feeling much better. The extremely bad headache is subsiding due to the pressure of the swelling going down. Her eyesight is still being a little funny. She has extreme blind spots. If you stand in front of her and she moves her head to the left a little you are cut right down the middle. She has been told that is should improve or go back somewhat. We are hoping for a fully recovery of course.

Thanks again to everyone and keep those prayers come'n!!! Love to you all.