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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Whoa...my baby turned five years old today. Those five years flew by me. It seems like yesterday I was eating Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital after Ethan debuted three weeks earlier than he was supposed to. It's hard to imagine that he's already one fourth of the way to 20. Okay, I know that's a strange way to look at it, but it's true. My daughter is almost halfway to 16 and I know from step-parenting how much fun that's going to be. Anyway, we had a fun day today celebrating "Superman's" birthday. Here's a couple of pictures....

Five years ago today...

Today!

Project

Okay, since this took up a total of about 15 hours of our time, I thought I'd share a picture of Hallie's project on Ancient China. For the third month of second grade, I think this is pretty ambitious. She did a great job, though.

Happy Halloween!!

Autumn Happenings

I'm really tired of folding laundry so blogging is a good way to procrastinate doing it any more...at least for today. Other than laundry (which is my lot in life...sigh) I have had plenty of other things keeping me busy. Things a lot more fun than searching for matching socks. We visited the pumpkin patch last weekend and had a blast. The weather is finally cooling off, thank goodness. I am seriously starting to buy into the whole global warming issue. The retreat was also totally awesome. I'd have to say that it was one of the best weekends our family has ever had together. Oh, and the kids actually didn't pout too much over learning the syllabary. In fact, my kids loved it. I only wish my grandparents were still here to help me teach them. My sweet grandmother passed away 2 years ago. I still miss her.

In addition to all the exuberant enjoyment we've been experiencing, I've also been a little sad this weekend. A good friend of mine passed away this summer in a plane crash along with his wife. I came across several emails we'd shared and it really brought it all back. He and his wife were so sweet and I know their children and grandchildren miss them terribly. I hate that they were not only taken too soon, but in such a horrific manner.

Anyway, I am trying to focus on positive things, because they are so plentiful. Hallie is loving second grade and is doing so well. It's funny...Hallie has gotten really interested in human anatomy and biology lately. She says she wants to be a pediatric cardiologist or nurse (I guess that depends on how long she wants to go to school). We ordered some books about the skeleton and organ systems from the scholastic book club and she has memorized the entire human skeleton. She also loves to inform us of random medical facts, like how much blood the heart pumps a day or the different types of broken bones. She also has her eye on this for Christmas. Ethan, on the other hand, is quite squeamish. He can't stand to hear us talking about it and even the word "blood" is enough to make him cover his ears and say in a very distressed voice "You're freaking me out!" I doubt he'll even be in the same room with Hallie's potential gift. He much prefers to talk about space and rockets. He has decided that he is going to go to Auburn and be an astronaut. When I told him that 6 astronauts graduated from Auburn including T.K. Mattingly of Apollo 13, he said "Well, were they any good in the football games?" I had to explain to him that playing football was not a necessity for going to Auburn, that only a small percentage of the students actually play and as far as I know, none of the astronauts did. He seemed relieved. He said "That's good, because I think I'll be too skinny anyway." Yes, my son, genetically, the odds are not in your favor. Basketball, maybe?

Well, I better get going. Randy is waiting for me to watch a movie. He's so sweet. He had 4 trees planted today in our yard as an early birthday present. They include 2 my favorite Red Maples and 2 River Birches. I'm so excited. I keep going to the window to look at them, until it got dark, that is. Yes, I'll be 31 on November 5th. That sounds so old.

I'm really going now. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Updates...

Hello Blogdom!! I guess it's been a while. It's that crazy-busy time of year again and so much is going on. Not only am I dealing with second grade homework (do you remember diagramming sentences or writing essays in second grade? Me neither.) and Pre-K homework (yes, it exists) but I am also having to deal with college homework. Having one in the workplace, one in college, one in elementary school and one in preschool is very time consuming...and that's just the one's that live here. I'll admit, I'm enjoying helping Alex with her English papers, am going to try Scott's cooking at the restaurant when I get my courage up, and can intellectually handle diagramming sentences and cutting out pictures of things that start with D. However, doing all this on little or no sleep is what's driving me crazy. I don't know why, but I can't sleep any more, even with all my allergy medication. Weird and frustrating...

Well, in other news, we moved! Since my last post was about our tiny little rental house, I should mention that we don't live there any more. We found the perfect house for us and moved in early August. It's so lovely to have a bathroom I can actually take a bath in! Even though I never do (shower person), it's nice to have that option. Heck, it's nice to have room for a bathtub...and two sinks! Can you imagine? Okay, well I know that's not earth shattering, but hey, I can appreciate it.

It's getting late, so I better go lie down and stare at the ceiling for 8 hours...I mean, go to bed. I still have some work to do for the U-NI-WI-SA-NA retreat next weekend. I can't wait for the kids to progress in their language studies. I have a feeling getting the kids to move from playing stick ball to the Cherokee syllabary is not going to be easy. Wish me luck!

In case you haven't noticed...

...I don't think blogging is a priority for me any more. If any of you are still out there, which is not all that likely since I have been posting once a month lately, I apologize. I've just been too busy with other stuff and have been spending most of my computer time (that's not devoted to genealogy) on our family website. Yes, it's mostly pictures and not very intellectually stimulating, but it sure is fun. Other than that, I've been busy with kids and looking for a house. We've been in this "rental" for five months now and the novelty is beginning to wear off. Our "closet" bathroom (I put closet in quotes because, let's face it, everyone's closets are bigger than this bathroom) used to be cute. Then, it was just a little cute. Now, it's just little. No, make that tiny. Minuscule. There's not much I can say about a room that's 4' by4' except that the biggest part of it is the shower stall. It wouldn't be so bad if the only cabinet in the room wasn't over the toilet. I mean, where else could it be, right? The toilet is half the entire room. The problem is that every time I open it to get something, something falls into the toilet. Usually it's the something I was reaching for to begin with, which, as you can imagine can be a big problem. I can't tell you how many cosmetic items I've fished out of there (yes, of course I do. Throw it away, that is). So far the casualties include two sticks of deodorant, nail clippers, a brand new toothbrush, my eyeshadow, a $15 bottle of moisturizer and about 100 cotton balls and Q-tips. So, this combined with the fact that a family of 4 (at times, 5 or 6) can't comfortably live in 1500 square feet, is motivating me to look a little more hastily for a house. The tricky part is finding a house that's a little bigger, but still in our price range. We'll see how that goes.

Well, to those of you who made it this far, thanks for "listening" to me vent. It's been fun. I'll try to stop by a little more often. :)

Pictures from the Southwest

Our family has been travelling across the country and recently visited the Grand Canyon and Albuquerque, NM...one of my favorite places. Tomorrow we will be in Tulsa, OK and then hopefully home by Monday. Here are a few pictures of our trip so far.

Our family at the Grand Canyon...

From the top of Sandia Peak, New Mexico...elevation 10,000 feet

Pictures...

Things are just too crazy around here, but I thought I'd post a few pictures from Easter and Hallie's school program.

Noggins, Nausea and Night-Night

Whew...what a week, or 10 days or whatever it has been. Between plumbing problems, a flooded basement, busted noggins, a trip to the ER, fevers of 102 and a husband that is out of town again, things have been a little crazy! We had a great visit with Marshall and a fun camping trip to my hometown. Well, that is until a game of "Monster Tag" ended up with Ethan's head colliding with the furniture in my dad's living room. Hey, I love my hometown but it's medical facilities leave something to be desired, however we had no choice but to utilize it. I've never seen a head bump like that in my life and I hope I never do again. It scared the absolute crap out of me. The whole way there (all 2 minutes) I had visions of neurosurgery performed by my ex husband's college roommate with my second cousin assisting. I mean he's a good doctor, but he's no brain surgeon, and I happen to know that my cuz didn't exactly ace nursing school. Thankfully it didn't come to that, of course. They did some scans and Ethan was fine, but it was still not on my list of fun things to do on vacation. The fun wasn't over, either. When we got back from the ER Hallie was gagging over the toilet with a fever of 102. Needless to say, I didn't sleep that night.

We returned from our trip all in one piece and jumped right back into things. Hallie recovered and no one else has gotten sick so far. I am in the middle of a bunch of genealogical paperwork that is driving me bananas. Ever since I decided to actually join the Cherokee tribe I have been up to my ears in it. Randy is on a business trip and I am so tired I can't see straight. I think it's bedtime. Here's a picture of Hallie and her fish she caught on our trip....before the infamous game of Monster Tag.

88 Degrees...

Whew...it's now OFFICIALLY Spring (really feels like Summer), but I won't be complaining. Anything's better than cold weather. We just returned from Spring Break and a week long camping trip. We visited several places and had no set plan. We ended the week at my mom's house and celebrated some family birthdays. We have all been feeling well and excited about things to come. I am proud of myself for sticking to my exercise routine and I swear I will be bikini ready in time for our first beach trip this year. My goal was to pack on some muscle weight and so far, so good. Anyway, Marshall is coming to visit tomorrow and we have another camping trip planned. Soon after that Hallie will be starting softball (coach pitch this year...yea!), working on her orange belt test in karate and Ethan will be taking swimming lessons at the YMCA. In May we have our annual Destin, FL trip...the day school is out, we're gone! In June, we are all flying to California for a week to see Alex graduate from high school and we will also be going to Disneyland, SeaWorld, and visiting with close friends. After that, Alex will be coming to Alabama to stay!! What could be better? As you can see, we have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be thankful for! I hope all of you are having a wonderful Spring as well!

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

My season of wintering is over once again. My senses have come alive, awakened by the 75 degree air presently coming through my window screens. I have them all open right now. I couldn't resist. It' s a wonderful feeling, I can't stop myself from walking over to them and taking slow deep breaths of that almost-Spring air. If I sound happy, it's because I am. The strep throat has been banished, I can take my walks outside everyday and the evenings are punctuated with the shrill laughter of children...mine and the neighbors, floating through the house from the backyard. A sense of harmony has settled on our home and I am basking in it's glory.

Well, I must go now and work out while I still have time before school gets out. I am aiming to find that six pack that I know is there somewhere before swimsuit season is here. Have good weekends everybody!