The McMillins

Ok.... so it turns out Zach and Gretchen BOTH got the flu. Zach seems to be doing MUCH better. Gretchen is too but is still battling a very "juicy" cough. Looks like we'll be back at school tomorrow. FINALLY!

We just got news that Gretchen's mom did well in the surgery. However, while they were originally going to do laproscopic surgery, they ended up having to cut her open (bikini cut) totally. While the Doctor was removing the ovary AND the cyst he found stones that had been dropped in her when she had her gall bladder out years and years ago. They have been sitting next to her Ovary this whole time. They found another stone that was connected to her colon. The surgeon decided not to take that one b/c he didn't want to damage her colon. So now she will have to recover for 3 weeks instead of 1. Please continue to pray for her.

Zach had a fever last Tuesday of 103.6. His fever came down by 1 degree everyday. Gretchen started feeling ill Thursday evening. Friday, it got worse, but her and Corey went out on a date anyway. They went out to dinner and a movie. Then on Saturday, Gretchen woke up with a fever of 103.7. It hurt for her to get up and walk. Fortunately, Corey was off work and was able to take good care of her and of Zach. She is starting to feel somewhat better, at least the fever is gone, but her throat really hurts from coughing so much and from having to breathe out of her mouth. She wishes she had some chocolate to soothe her throat. :)

There have been many people in our lives that need so much prayer b/c of hard times.

The first is Gretchen's mom. She called us yesterday telling us that the doctor's found an ovarian cyst the size of a tangerine in her sonogram. She has to have laproscopic surgery on March 12th to have it removed. She is very worried about it being cancerous. Please pray that it will be benign. Also, please pray for comfort for her mom.

One of Gretchen's friends, Alissa, is 29 1/2 weeks pregnant and her water broke Wednesday night. As of yesterday morning, she was having contractions. Please pray that the baby will be okay. They tried for 2 years to have a baby.

One of Gretchen's piano students' great grandmother is in the hospital on a ventilator and they are going to pull her off of it this week. It's very hard on the grandmother. Please pray for Terrie for comfort. She's really upset about it.

Corey took me and Zach out to dinner last night. I got my favorite cheesecake from one of my favorite restaurants along with some peel and eat shrimp. Then, we came home and watched an animated movie with Zach called, "The Ten Commandments". It was a pretty good movie (very biblical).

Here are just a FEW of our pictures from Hawaii. Gretchen is still working on the rest!

Gretchen stayed up late last night doing our taxes. She loves doing that sort of stuff. She finished them pretty quickly, tho. We printed them out today. We're going to just review them over the weekend and send them off on Monday! We like to have our taxes done early so we don't have to worry about it.

Both Corey and Gretchen are sick. Corey started feeling bad at the beginning of the week and now just has a cough. Gretchen started with a slight stomach virus last night. Corey told her NOT to clean today and to just relax. She has only picked up around the house, did some laundry, did dishes and made the bed. She has a piano lesson this afternoon and she just wanted to make sure the house looked "decent". She feels a little bit better after taking a shower but her head hurts.

Many of you know that Gretchen was trying to lose weight. When we went to Maryland last year she was 138 or 139 lbs. Her goal was 135 lbs. Well, she surpassed it and with being sick last night she's now down to 131 lbs. Corey and her both want to see what she looks like at 130 lbs but she's pretty happy where she's at. She'll probably gain some of that weight back on the trip, tho. :)

Gretchen has given Zach 4 piano lessons since the beginning of the year. She has to hold him back from learning so much at one time because he likes to keep going. He's now finished his whole first book of piano lessons (47 pages). He's moving on to the next book. Amazingly, he loves taking piano lessons. Gretchen's taking advantage of it while she can. :)

From the day after Christmas, Gretchen has been doing a lot of cleaning. Although, don't let her fool you because she loves cleaning. She took down all the decorations (except the trees), the day after Christmas. Both her and Corey were starting to feel like their house was "cluttered". Then, she cleaned out the "Guest Bedroom" and moved our book shelf out in the family room upstairs. She went through all the books and organized them according to category. Then, she took down the Christmas trees on New Year's Eve.

Now, she has a big pile of "stuff" that needs to be sold and/or given away. She still needs to take pictures of everything to put it on ebay or craigslist.

Last weekend she went through Zach's summer clothes and got his clothes ready for Hawaii. Then, she went through both Corey's and her own summer clothes and washed the ones that needed to be washed. She's got our clothes all layed out and ready to be packed. She's afraid to put them in a suit case yet, tho, because she doesn't want them getting wrinkled. There's some stuff that can't be packed until the last minute. You probably know what those are tho, huh? :)

So, how many of you actually stayed up to watch the ball drop? I know we did. This is the first New Year's that we have been together for. The past 2 years, Corey has had to work on New Year's Eve. This year, since it was our first, we decided to stay up and watch the ball drop. It was nice but we were very tired this morning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! We love and miss you all!! Thank you all for the gifts. We love them! :)