Bragg Family South

Forgive me if this look odd, but this is Hope just providing a brief update on Don's surgery. On Thursday Don and I drove to Pine Bluff to await his surgery. After a long wait for the doctor, he had a modified laminectomy. Basically they relieved the pressure on the nerves around one of his vertebra. He is doing as well as can be expected, and we brought him home Friday afternoon. The kids have been very good so far, although Beth wishes to be picked up and can't figure out why she can't be held right now by Daddy. Don has been walking about a 1/4 of a mile each day, and by the end of the week the doctor would like him to be walking a mile a day.

I (Don) will be undergoing back surgery this next week to repair a condition that has long troubled me, and will therefore not be updating this blog for a while as I recover. Rest assured, this is nothing serious, and I should be back on my feet quickly. Mom and Dad are planning on driving down to Arkansas to visit and help Hope with the kids.

It's been almost a month since our last post. Things have finally settled down enough from our travels over the Christmas-New Year's season that we needed to update this blog. Although we enjoyed our travels up north, we hope not to have that experience again!! This is because of the waves of illness that swept over our family (and many of yours, as well). Lil' Beth got sick on the drive north, and soon her flu passed to mom and dad, followed by Kenny and Hope's parents (and eventually Don's brother Bill). We all seemed to shed the flu quickly, but both Kenny and Beth had nasty colds, and Beth's even became a slight case of pneumonia. Kenny also seemed to be having problems hearing us, so when we got back to Arkansas, we took him to his doctor, and she said "ear infections"!! Both of the kids are largely over their illnesses, and energetic as ever. Unfortunately, these illnesses kept us from visiting as many of you as we wanted to, and we are sorry for...