thankful hearts

thanksgiving took on a special meaning for us this year. as much as we were looking forward to lindsey's family coming to visit, we were just as excited to spend the holiday break with lee's family instead but sad for the change of events. my heart and thoughts were often with the family in birmingham and the tough journey we are all just beginning. however, we are both so thankful for our families and how much they mean to us. God has richly blessed us in ways we cannot fully express in words. even in times when emotions are barely at bay and the future is unknown, we are doing our best to live with thankful hearts.

on a lighter note, i would like to share a little of our thanksgiving break we had with the whole pilgreen family in town! emily cooked a delicious thanksgiving dinner, she and walter were wonderful hosts as always, erin and zach provided a delicious dinner and dessert night, the guys had a day out while the girls enjoyed the pinkness of a baby shower, and we all had a great time visiting together.

sam's birthday celebration:
happy thanksgiving!
the annual jack hayes memorial football game (lee and ben vs. zach and walter...lee and ben are apparently 9-0 now):
baby eva's shower: pilgreen sisters and wives (and niece)
hostesses (and niece)

happy anniversary

it is hard to believe we have already been married a year. our first year of marriage has been so much more than i think either of us ever imagined. here's to many, many more anniversaries to come! and, here is a little recap of the past year...

1 year of marriage filled with (in no particular order)...

2 different states of residence
14 (i think) different states visited during vacations
2 busted tires
1 late winter snow
1 live, then left-for-dead, christmas tree because we forgot to water it
4 different college campuses visited
1 cubs game together
1 sec championship game
1 day at the master's
3 major league baseball games together
1 pre-season nfl game
1 month (and counting) of riding to work together

and so many more events, memories, laughs, cries, and special occasions to count.

i love you, lee!

saturday update

this morning my granddad had the tracheostomy which thankfully went well. the purpose of it was to make it easier to take care of any problems that may arise with the ventilator. he will also have less irritation in his throat when they go to take out the ventilator eventually.

we are still playing the waiting game on when/how he will wake up. it doesn't seem likely that any more tests will be done until the first of the week. he still has some (expected) swelling on his face and jaw line from the surgery. however, the head surgeon is very pleased with the progress of his healing with that.

i guess this might not be much a new update, but it is all we know so far. keep praying

prayers please

*update 2 (friday night): the unexpected turn from wednesday has been quite the setback. he has not been able to wake up since then. various tests, drugs, and antibiotics have been given in hopes of figuring things out, but nothing is working quite as it should. a tracheostomy will be done in the morning, but we still may not have any answers for a few more days.

thank you again for the prayers. please keep them coming. pray for healing and clear answers for the doctors and for our family. pray for my grandmother as she tries to keep everything straight and understand what is going on. pray for lee as he drives here tonight and tomorrow.

as i just finished typing this and was about to hit send, we just heard they were just able to get his heart back on regular rhythm which also got his blood pressure back on a more normal level. a small win, but a win nonetheless. there are still many unknowns, but there are also still many prayers being lifted up. thank you

*update 1: continue praying as we are still waiting on more details and answers. thank you for your prayers so far. i will wait to give a detailed update until we know more.*

i know i have not been as active on the blog since i started working, but i promise to make some improvements on that very soon.

in the meantime, please say a quick prayer for my (lindsey's) granddad. he had partial jaw replacement surgery on tuesday which involved taking a piece of bone from his lower leg to make a new half of his bottom jaw. the origin of his jaw problems came from the cancer he fought in that area a few years ago. the cancer has been gone, but infections have lingered due to the damage from the radiation. the surgery was successful in removing the infectious part, but today he had some pretty serious complications. i do not have very much information right now, but i do know things have taken an unexpected turn. please pray for his health (his name is clayton), and my grandmother as she tries to remain strong during this time.

thank you

we love visitors!

it's true. almost as much as we love traveling, we love having friends and family come visit. last weekend, our awesome friend katy paid us a visit. we introduced her to one of our new faves, cafe adobe. seriously, it is amazing mexican food. lee even claims for anything mexican (excluding fajitas) that he would choose cafe adobe over pappasitos. that is a big deal, people.

anyway, we also enjoyed a typical lazy saturday morning, and then the a&m game at kyle & jamie's house. we had a great time with some people from lee's days at a&m even though they did not have the same outcome in their game as i did from the bama game. kason and madeline, the kiddos present saturday night, were definitely our entertainment all night. these are the only pictures from the weekend, but the kids are super cute so enjoy!

(i promise they were smiling half a second before and after i took this picture)

see, they are happy kids...hugs and all!

we wrapped up the weekend with breakfast at le peep (of course!) and almost shopping at the galleria. apparently it does not open until 11am on sunday mornings...who knew?! not us. instead, we went to katy mills because who doesn't love an outlet mall :)

thanks again for coming to visit, katy! come back anytime!

gameday in the pilgreen house

we are a house divided today.

every other saturday in the fall, we cordially watch each other's teams and may even cheer them on at times. today is not one of those days.

alabama vs. lsu. 2:30. it is kind of a big game.

we'll see which one of us is still smiling after the game is over... :)

*update:* in continuing to be a good sport, i think you can assume who was smiling more immediately following the game. luckily, neither one of us have frustration over football that lasts for more than 5 minutes so all is (and was) well in the pilgreen house! :)