Washington Ave..... STL!!!

So Monday morning, Ashley and I took off for STL to meet my mom and do a little apartment shopping. We looked at a few monday and then headed to my Aunt Heidi's and Uncle Mikes in Kirkwood to spend the evening. They took us to Ted Drewes for a little Ice Cream and then we spent the evening in... my grandpa clark, uncle mike, tim, and becket hung out upstairs and played games. While me, ash, my mom, and my aunt heidi stayed down stairs and watched old 80's movies... lol. Good times! :) Tuesday, Tim, Mom, Ash, and I took off to look at a few more places! We found a few good ones but my absolute favorite is Fashion Square Lofts! This is the view from the very top of the roof... if you go down the stairs there is a pool and bar/entertaining area...

Me and Ash in front of another view from the roof. I love this place!!! It is about a block away from my school, great security, gated parking, very spacious, just really amazing!!

A look down Washington Ave.... Fashion Square lofts is on the right... We are standing in front of a little resturant we went and ate at called Lucas Street Grill and Market... amazing food and a neat little outside eating area in the front and a deck off to the side. Very cool!

Me and Ashley again! I had such a great time these past two days... I think i will really love it over there. Glad mom, ash and tim helped me look around!! Great little mini vaca....

Just a lil update...

So not much has been going on with me... did get my tattoo finished! I'll post pictures when it is all healed up... I love it! :) Besides that... I'm just excited that we are getting all this warm weather... We had our first day out on the lake a couple weeks ago and it was awesome! I love being out on the lake till the sun goes down so of course I had to take a picture! And then there is Nikki and Me!!
Then a couple saturdays ago... Me and Samantha and Susanne and Kyle all went on a poker run I'll have pics of that up soon! We had such a good time! Of course we weren't on bikes... ha.

My new tattoo!!

I don't know what I was thinking I do have news! lol I got my tattoo on my foot :) Love it... so far that is! It isn't finished yet I have to go back in a couple of weeks to get the color filled in so... when its all done and healed I will post a picture!!

Countdown is on... HA

Wow I haven't posted in forever... not even sure where to start! I guess my first news is that I officially have my class spot reserved to start school in STL in October. I'm excited!! Other than that nothing is really new with me... My birthday was this past Wednesday... the big 20... I'm no longer a teenager... party is over! ha yeah right! so the countdown is on... one more year! :) It kinda sucks cause I'm basically the youngest of my class but I was talking to Clay Britton the other day and he made a good point..... when all the older ones turn 21 they won't have as many people to party with cause none of us will be old enough yet by the time my birthday rolls around... Everyone will be able to party with me! lol Anyways all the girls came home to party with me for the weekend... it was a great time! I was glad to see everyone... it had been forever! Thank god the weather was nice! We kicked off the festivities on Friday afternoon.... and ended them at about 4 o clock sunday morning.... :) Here are just a few pictures of us girls.... We made shirts again this year and we all wore them later that night... but my camara died before the unvailing of those so no pictures! :) Haley, Nikki, Brooke, Amber, Alison, Me, Tiffany, Ashley, and Shana!
Amber, Nikki, Brooke, Me, Tiffany, and Ashley!

Anways! That is about all that is new with me! I'm 100% ready for summertime! Can't Wait!!!

Update...

Ben did have to have surgery yesterday for the pressure to be relieved in his brain.... it went well. If you would like to keep updated on my cousin Ben you can go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/benjaminmiller. His sister is keeping everyone posted on anything that is going on as she is there all day - everyday. Keep Praying Everyone!

Long Road Ahead...

So we had put some pictures of Ben up in his room, because it is comforting to see them for us and we were told that the nurses enjoying seeing the person they are working with how they were before because it helps them also... We found this picture today... blew it up and it is posted on the front glass of his room in ICU... :) Gotta love Ben... he's such a funny guy.

Anyways.... it was another long day today. Most of the day was the same... they had to drain his brain a few times. And he did well with his feeding today. I only went in a few times today... it's getting harder to go in and see him laying there and not be able to talk to him. We have a book that me and my mom went and got on the first day and have just been passing it around in the waiting room throughout the day... its really neat. So i just write in there what I would say to him if I could talk to him right now! Later on this evening one of his physical therapists came in and she fit him with splints for his hands to prevent contractures. She told us that starting tomorrow we will be able to go in and talk to him again and hold his hand..... we are supposed to touch the inside of his palm while talking and always repeat things for up to 4 to 5 minutes such as "open your eyes ben" just because that's how long it will take his brain to understand (for lack of a better word). Or we can just go in and talk to him if we'd like, but we're also told for only one person to be talking at a time because he can't be hearing more than one voice or noise because it will confuse him.

It's scary... also within the next few days/weeks they will be running tests to see what kind of damage to the brain stem has been done which is really going to determine alot of his response to things as I understand it. As his sister Tara has said we are just trying to prepare ourselves right now from no response to a full recovery. And we are in it for the long haul!!

I'm going back to work tomorrow... although I'd rather just be there. Not really sure what to do about this weekend. I know there are a lot of people at the hospital, but it just feels like I should be there, but then again this is going to be a long period of time and I'm going to have to be working to.... I just dont' know what to do! Just cant wait for the moment to talk to him again or to just even know for a fact that he is goign to live just with a lot of rehab...

I went in and saw him right before we left tonight... we weren't supposed to be in there but the nurse let me anyways :) She said that his numbers were getting up high again and she might have to drain in a few minutes and so I asked her about the monitors and where she was looking.... she paused for a minute... smiled... finally pointed them out to me and then immediately said hunny you dont' worry about those numbers that's my job just worry about praying and taking care of him. She was sweet... and it's nice to have such good nurses there!

Keep Praying!!

Wednesday...

So Ben had a rough night last night they had to drain his brain about 6 times within an hour and at about 1 the nurse was preparing to call the neurosurgeon if Ben's brain fluid levels stayed above 20 again for more than five minutes. But we didn't end up having to call the surgeon and he had remained stabalized staying between a level of 11-14! That was up until 8:30 this morning... shortly after that we met with the neurosurgeon who updated us on Ben's status. Currently there are two fronts that Ben is working on. The first is trying to keep his intracranial pressure at levels that will not do further damage to his brain. The second is the healing of the brain stem. He told us that Ben will have a CAT scan tomorrow to check on the brain stem. While there is no change in Ben's neurological assessment today, that the first 1-2 weeks after the injury will tell a lot in terms of long term prognosis. The great news that he gave us is that he believes Ben is approaching the peak of brain swelling and that the swelling should start to subside by the end of this evening. He also told us that his belly is waking up and is making some gurgling noises, so they are going to continue attempts with feeding.

Keep praying everyone... its going to be a long journey!!