Phi Masters Living Windows

I took my great granddaughter Mercedes and grandson Nathan to the Living windows celebration in Knoxville last night. First we saw the live animals. Then they appeared in my sorority's window. Here is the "story" that I wrote for the Torch magazine of Beta Sigma Phi.

Storybook characters came to life on November 17 when Phi Masters chapter of Beta Sigma Phi participated in Living Windows in Knoxville, Iowa as each storefront had a different Christmas book setting. The book, “Counting to Christmas” by Nancy Tefuri, was spot lighted on an easel. Members of the sorority decorated a Christmas tree with stuffed animals and numbers in the background scene. An advent calendar and posters of the book surrounded the other window as Maxine Pritchard’s grandson, Kaden Smith, and Darlene Miller’s grandchildren Nathan Klein and Mercedes Druliner demonstrated the activities of the book by making paper chains to decorate the Christmas tree, wrote letters to Santa and mailed them in the delightful mailbox. The children did more drawing, cutting and pasting as they made Christmas cards. Each child was surprised to learn that a gift box they wrapped was for them. Then they each wrapped a stuffed bear to give to a friend to demonstrate the sharing aspect of the book.

Early Thanksgiving

Because we are getting ready to leave Iowa and head south, we had an early Thanksgiving with our family on Sunday. All the women helped prepare the food. The guys ate and watched movies, not football, on the wall in the living room. They darkened the room but not enough for the flash to come on. (That’s why the photos are dark.)

Dad was the oldest person there. Grandson Nathan was the youngest of the eighteen people who ate dinner. The food was great. The conversation was fine and it was so nice to relax afterwards with all the cleaning-up finished.

Triplets

After nine weeks on bedrest at the hospital, my niece, Mindy, gave birth to triplet girls on July 12. They were extremely fragile since they were only 27 weeks into gestation and weighed 1 pound 8 oz. To 2 pounds.

Teagan, Rianne, and Brielle came home one by one a few weeks ago. Saturday night Brielle had another episode of projectile vomiting which occluded her airway and put her into resp. arrest. Tony, the father gave CPR. An ambulance was called and they rushed her to Blank Children's Hospital. They diagnosed pyloric stenosis.

I spent the last couple of days with Joy, Mindy and the triplets.

Quote from the family "Tues 11/1/11 7 AM - Brielle went in and had a successful one-hour surgery at Blank Children's Hospital to lance a rather large bulge in her pyloric valve. Because her lung function is compromised (why she's on oxygen at home) it took her a little while to come to. She is still intubated at 11 AM as a precaution, she needs to wake up a bit more before they will extubate her. Thanks for your prayers, we are so thankful she's out and hopefully this will make her much better and she can come home in a few days."

They wanted her awake before they removed her from the vent. At 11: 45 AM.the doctor, nurse and resp. came into the room to extubate Brielle. I took the photos of her before and after she was taken off the vent. She did just fine.

I just called Joy who is my sister and the grandmother. She stayed all night Tuesday with Brielle at the hospital. Brielle ate well and didn’t vomit but was restless so Joy held her all night. The family still needs your prayers for these precious miracles.

Top photo is of Grandma Joy and Mother Mindy comforting Brielle after the vent was removed.

Next is Brielle on vent. Teagan is at home but continues to be on O2. Look at the way Rianne is holding her head up for Grandma Joy. The bottom photo is of me holding Rianne.