Sunday, August 03, 2008

A Fun Day...


On the way to "Memories with Mom" at the American Girl Boutique and Bistro in Atlanta.

Hallie and I enjoying our fondue and marshmellows.

A fun-filled day in my hometown. This is the variety store on Broad St. where my mom worked as a teenager.

This the alternative to Wal-mart and Target, Folks. Where else can you get a wheelbarrow, Pop Rocks and a ceramic chicken all in one place?

Meet Connie. She's the mayor's ex-wife. She sells hotdogs on Broad St. See, it's never too late for a career change.

Ah...the memorial to Emma Sansom. She showed Gen. Forrest and his Confederate army the way across Black Creek. She got a statue and a high school in her honor. Not bad for a 14 year old girl.

The main street of my hometown. Isn't it adorable?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Update...

Well, I'm a little delinquent but I am finally posting some pictures of my niece. Zoie is doing great and she is a sweet little girl with a very playful side. She has already learned a few words of English and even though her language development is delayed, she is very good at communicating.




As for everyone else, things are okay. I'm a little frazzled from being stuck in the house with one sick child (Ethan-stomach bug) and two healthy (hyper?) ones while Randy has been out of town for 2 days. I'm also stressing that school starts in less than a week. Alex is wanting to live in the dorms next semester and the university is still wanting to charge her out of state tuition. I can hardly keep up with all I have going on. Somewhere beneath all my sticky notes sits a refrigerator...one that hopefully has some cookie dough ice cream hiding in it's freezer. I go in search of it. Goodnight!

www.southerngenes.com

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Happy Fourth!




We had a great day yesterday. Although it rained a little, we didn't let it stop the fun!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Just a Quickie

This will be short, but I wanted to let everyone know that my niece and BIL will be home Friday and she is doing fantastic. She is almost all smiles now in the pictures and she has really warmed up to her new daddy. We are praying that she will adjust to her new home and family as easily once she is here. They have a long flight (20 hours) ahead so I'm also praying that Scott will still be sane when they arrive. He is a very brave man for going to China to pick up his new daughter alone. We love him!!! Also, my dad's WBC count is up (actually, waaaay up due to an injection) so we are going to visit him on Friday and will finally be able to celebrate Father's Day. We have been at the beach for a week and have had a marvelous time, but I am ready to come home. I'll try to post again tonight. Now it's time for an 8 hour drive with 3 kids. Woo-hoo!!!!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Happy Father's Day!


This should go well with that Wii Fit he got...

Meet My New Niece!!

Yesterday my BIL finally got to pick up his new daughter in China on Father's Day...what are the odds? She did great and although she is somewhat apprehensive (which is to be expected) she seems to be adjusting well so far. Anyway, they will have to stay in China for another week and a half, but I wanted to share this picture. We are so excited and can't wait to meet her in person!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Quick Update

It's been a pretty good summer so far. We've spent lots of time outside with friends and my stepson is visiting for two weeks. Tomorrow morning Hallie's softball team is playing for the city championship. I can't wait to see this game! Whether they win or not, I am so proud of these girls. They have worked so hard. It's awesome to see my daughter excel in something that she enjoys so much.

This will be a hard weekend since we won't be able to visit my dad for Father's Day. The chemo has his WBC too low for him to be around people...especially children. This is very hard for him to take because he is such a people person. He goes for another round of chemo next Friday. We'll be on vacation, so I am hoping and praying that all goes well. He's had a good bit of pain lately, especially in his throat and neck where he had previously had radiation therapy. Some very good news is that his PET scan showed that the cancer has not spread to any other areas and is confined to one cluster of lymph nodes. I just can't wait until 4 months from now when we are all on the other side of this thing. We will be celebrating, that's for sure!

Well, I better get to bed. It's almost 1:00 a.m. and we have a big day ahead of us. As of Wednesday, we'll be headed to the beach and some QT with the fam and my bestest friend. I can't wait! Thanks to all of you for your encouraging comments and emails. I am truly blessed!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Staying Positive

My dad, being the fun and positive guy that he is, decided he wanted to have a head-shaving party yesterday and let the grandkids help cut his hair. The kids had a great time and I think this helped them accept PawPaw's new "hair" style. His first chemotherapy treatment is today. He also gets the results of his PET scan. We are praying that the cancer has not spread and that he tolerates the medicine well. My dad is such a trooper!

Me, my dad and my sister.

PawPaw and the grandkids.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Exciting Events

Hallie's softball team completed their season undefeated this week! We are so excited. The Eagles will be competing in the city tournament this weekend and part of next week. This coming weekend we will also be camping at the Sidanelvhi Retreat (Cherokee Family Gathering) at the tribal lands. It's about a 45 minute drive for us to come back into town for her tournament games (including getting up at 5:00 a.m. for a 7:30 game) but it will be well worth it. We finally got around to picking up Hallie's report card and SAT results today. She made all A's all year and scored in the 99th percentile in the nation on her tests. I am so proud of her! We had a fun mother-daughter day together running errands and eating lunch with two of our best friends (Sarah and her mom). We had a great time at the bookstore picking out our summer reading. I can't believe how much that girl loves to read. Well, yes I can. She is my daughter after all.

In other news, Ethan is having a fun-filled summer so far, too. His T-ball team didn't exactly excel, but hey, they've definitely improved. At least, the boys don't cry when they get out any more...much. A few of his preschool classmates are getting together once a week to practice their reading skills and their first session was yesterday. They met at our house and it was fun to be back together with old friends. They are doing great! We also broke down and bought a Wii a couple of days ago and have we ever had fun with it! I discovered I can actually bowl over 100, as long as it's on a screen in my living room.

Well, there's laundry staring at me from across the stairs looking forlorn and woefully neglected. I better start paying it the proper attention. Here's a picture of Hallie's new "project." She made a beach and pool for her Polly Pockets out of a piece of styrofoam, complete with palm trees and a hot tub. If making cool things out of packing materials was marketable, my kids would be millionaires.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Shower for Zoie

For those of you who don't know, my sister and her husband are adopting a little girl from China. Her name is Zoie and she is 2 and half years old. She was born with a cleft lip and palate, so she will face a few surgeries after she has settled in here with her new family. She will be arriving on June 27th after a long year of waiting. Today was the shower for Zoie. It was a lot fun. Here are a few pictures.




Please keep my sister, her husband, my nephew and little Zoie in your prayers.

Friday, May 30, 2008

What Next...

Okay, so slap me. It's been forever since I've posted. I have no excuse other than life just throwing one thing after another our way. I think putting things in writing sort of forces us to accept them as fact and frankly, there's a lot lately that I'd rather leave in the realm of distant possibility as opposed to stark reality. However, I know that you can't make it to the other side of something until you face it, so here I go.

The last few months have been difficult. My step-grandmother died of ovarian cancer only a week after being diagnosed in March. This was very hard for my parents. My unlce died after a long battle with bladder cancer in April. This was especially difficult because Jerry was only 18 months older than my dad and he was also his best friend. His death was very hard for my dad and it was difficult to see him in pain. I think that it was also hard for me, not only because I loved my uncle, but because it really made me realize that it could have been my dad. Not that I haven't faced that possibility before. My dad had a rare forom of throat cancer in 1986 (occupational exposure related). I remember being scared to death. However, he not only survived, but thrived for the next 21 years. In 1988 my mom had a primary coronary spasm resulting from extreme stress (self inflicted though it was). I witnessed this at age 11 and was extremely traumatized by it. Since then, my mom has also survived breast cancer...twice (note to self: don't take HRT for ten years). Throughout all this, I've cried, kicked, screamed, prayed, and learned how to take care of sick people (and how to appreciate hospital waiting room coffee.) I've also developed an overly acute sense of dread and fear of loss. Of course, it's also had some positive impact on me, I suppose. I have to say, though, that I really thought I was due a few years without one of my parents having a life threatening illness. I was wrong about that....as people often are when they feel entitled to something.

My dad was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma last week and here I am again, feeling like a scared little girl who's world is being turned upside down. I got so stressed that I developed Shingles, which in and of itself, falls pretty hard in the non-fun category. It's nothing compared to what my dad's going through, though. Thankfully, my dad is the most positive person I know. He has a great attitude and has never let anything get the best of him so far. I know he'll fight this with all he's got and deep down, I know he's going to be okay. I really feel that. I've spent a lot of time in prayer and God has given me peace about this, and He knows better than anyone that peace doesn't come easy for me. So, I'm thankful for that. I'm trying to learn a lesson from my dad. I don't believe in sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I never have. I'm trying to focus on the positive. Sometimes I just need a little extra push to get me there. I usually get that push from my dad. This is no exception.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

"Unmentionable" Crime...

This article was on the front page of my hometown newspaper today. It's such a relief that they caught this guy. It was just so traumatic to have crime like this hit so close to home. I hope people can now feel safe enough to begin using their clothes lines again.

The real crime here? That this story was actually placed before the article about the man who has ridden his stationary bike over 9,000 miles. Now that's true front page news right there.

In case you're wondering...yes, I miss small town life. A lot.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

The New Year...

Well, I hope everyone had a good New Year's. I can't believe it is 2008. It seems like yesterday we were freaking out about Y2K and here it is eight years later and society has survived, for the most part. Amazing. I bought all that bottled water for nothing. :) Anyway, we had a great Christmas...the best one yet and New Year's was okay. We didn't really do anything this year. We had been visiting family and when we finally got home, all I wanted to do was have a glass of wine and relax, so I had two and really relaxed. We did go onto the porch at midnight and watch our neighbor's fireworks. I really meant to buy some for ourselves, but we just ran out of time. Oh well... In other happenings, Hallie turns 8 next week. She'll be halfway to 16. That's a scary thought. This year she is having two friends spend the night and we're going to Build-A-Bear and Shogun. I'm really looking forward to a birthday celebration I don't have to stress about. Surely it will be easier to keep up with three girls instead of 10, but I may be fooling myself. We'll see. Oh, I'm also taking a Cherokee language class out of Oklahoma that starts next week. I have to take it online since a 10 hour drive wouldn't be very realistic, but I'm looking forward to it. I wish my great grandparents were still alive. We could have some very interesting conversations. Other than that, nothing to report except my usual seasonal blues. Have I ever mentioned I hate January-March? Let's face it...winter sucks. I hate sitting inside all the time. I hate the way everything looks so dead. I also hate freezing my butt off, which is kind of sad since I live in the Southeast and it's not even that cold comparatively speaking. It's not like it's -10 degrees. I could never, ever survive north of the Mason-Dixon line. Well, I better go. Alex just came in with some food. Of course, I have to help her eat it.