Warrior Women

I was so blessed this week by attending our monthly Flavour at church. Flavour is a gathering for the women of our church and Lisa Young, our pastor's wife, is the speaker. The praise and worship is all women as well. It is such an amazing night for me. I get so upset when I haven't been able to make it. It's so great to get to fellowship and meet women while there. I always feel so much better after I leave...and blessed!

This Fall the topic is Warrior Women. It has been such a great subject to talk about. I realized that I haven't been clothing myself in the FULL armor of Christ. What a blessing it is to have a heavenly Father that loves us so much He gave us a full set of armor to clothe ourselves with on a daily basis. It's just our jobs to put it on everyday. I haven't been doing such a great job of that. I'm so grateful that Lisa has reminded me and encouraged me to do it.

There is also a Flavour Magazine. I'm including the link on this so that you can check it out as well. It's a great magazine with articles that are super quick-reads. If any of you ever want to go to a Flavour, just let me know. They are on the first Monday of the month in Fort Worth. The full schedule is on the web....Lisa is quite the travelin' woman. Let me add how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many godly, warrior women. (you know who you all are!!) :-)

Here is the link for the magazine: http://fellowshipchurch.com/flavourmagazine

You Might Be a Redneck If....

Well last weekend (the first weekend of October) we went back to Many, LA. Jeff and (his) Dad left Friday morning with the moving truck. His parents wanted to move the rest of their furniture down to the house in Many. So us girls stayed behind until Avery got done with school at 1:00. I LOVE how she is done early on Fridays!! We got on the road at 3:30....Mom (Jeff's), me, Avery, Kendall & Jake. We made one stop along the way to eat....Johnny's Pizza of course. So yummy but yet so easy for the everyone to eat in the car. We made it to Many in 4 1/2 hours!!! That's great time with the kids AND the dog! While we were there we had a great time and I thought we would share. Let me clarify one thing. I am using the word redneck in a joking manner. I'm not saying this to poke fun at anyone. I just thought that was fitting for the activities described below. Besides, I can say that since I have some in my family...takes one to know one I guess. LOL

So to answer the title above....

1. You shoot your own gun for fun.

Jeff brought our 9 mm down for me to do some target practice with. I haven't shot the gun in months so it was definitely time. We always bring Jake out with us so that it won't spook him if he ever has to hear it in the house. Of course, it is our prayer that he never will. For the first time, he wasn't scared of the cows and started chasing a few of them. It's amazing to see how much bigger he's gotten since the last time we went to Many in June!! Back to the shooting ~ I must say that I am quite the shot. I definitely can hit the target. I can also cock it (if that's what you call it on a handgun) or is it load it?? Whatever you call it when you slide the chamber back to load in the bullet from the cassette. That takes quite a bit of strength as I'm learning. But yes, between Jeff and I, we shot 100 bullets in less than 15 minutes. So fun though!

2. You race your suped-up lawn mower

So, Jeff's wonderful & precious cousin Brandy, along with her husband Rodney, told us that Robilene (a small town close to Many) was having a parade on Saturday and asked us to come with the girls. Her sister-in-law has a house right there on the parade route. Small-town festival parade? Absolutely!! The weather was so perfect. It was sunny with a breeze. Thank goodness Brandy & Rodney's family had extra plastic bags for candy for our girls! Then Brandy told us how they were going to have lawn mower races later, and that some of them even supe (however you spell that!!) theirs up so much so that one man can pop a wheelie in his!! This was the first time that I had heard of this sport. How funny is that?!? Yes, I did get a picture of the man popping his wheelie (he looked like Santa Claus)!! HI-larious! It was so much fun, and the girls filled up their bags with candy and beads. So now we don't have to buy candy to hand out for Halloween! We didn't stick around for the actual races though I'm sure they were a treat to watch.

3. You eat what was killed earlier that day.

Ok, so I am definitely a meat-eater. However, I don't partake in killing the meat that I eat. While we were out on Saturday, my nephew Jeb called us and invited us out. See this was the opening weekend of squirrel-hunting season. So they were all getting together and eating Squirrel Gumbo and wanted to invite us out. Yes, that's right, squirrel gumbo. Yes it's a rodent, but at least it's a rodent that eats nuts and not trash! Yes, I was born and raised in Louisiana but I don't think that I have ever had squirrel before. I'm pretty sure that I remember my mom making some turtle soup when I was young but I don't know if it had real turtle meat in it or not. We had company over that night and she didn't tell them what was in it until they had eaten it. I only remember this after one of their sons found me on facebook and reminded me. LOL So back to the gumbo. They were going to have a bonfire and a hayride for the kids also so we decided we would go out there for the girls. I did have a bite of the gumbo but with a bite of chicken and not squirrel...at least I don't think so. It was some good, spicy gumbo. We did the hayride and the girls loved it. Then they called all the kids inside for some fried snowflakes. I thought it might have been coconut or something since I had never heard of these before. No, they were folding up flour tortillas and cutting them like you do snowflakes. There was the biggest iron skillet with grease on the stove that I had ever seen. Seriously, the diameter had to have been 2 ft! They were frying them and then covering them in powedered sugar and cinnamon. Cute idea until one lady asked the man what they had fried in that grease earlier and he replied, "Do you really want to know??" as he was laughing hysterically. No one else was really paying attention to the conversation, because they were making snowflakes of the tortillas. What they failed to hear him say was rattlesnake. So they not only shot, killed and ate squirrel but also RATTLESNAKE?!? Needless to say, no my girls didn't have any of those. But it did make me laugh that's for sure.

We made the drive back home with Dad in a torrential down pour for almost the entire drive. We didn't stop once and got home in about 4 hours. Dad drove while I read one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time: Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer. I highly recommend it to anyone!!

We had a great time in Many though. It was nice to spend the weekend with Jeff since he will be working nights the entire month of October. He's doing his rotation of trauma. He will be done though in less than 2 months now! His official last day of class is December 4 and his graduation date is December 11. To say that we are excited is quite and understatement. Even better is that he was offered a job at the hospital he has been working at. That was what he wanted. So we are just praying that this is what the Lord wants for us. We also are praying that we follow Him in case He wants us somewhere else. So we'll just have to see.

Avery and Kami (Brandy's little girl) at 10 1/2 months

Ariel (Brandy's niece) & Avery at the parade

Kendall with some of her beads...scoping out the next car with candy

A guy in the parade

The racing lawn mower crew

Santa popping a wheelie on his!!

I'm thinking this one has hydraulics!

Brandy showing her LSU spirit in her clothes and beer can

Kendall petting the pony...she's almost as tall as the pony!!

Proud Daddy with his girls on the pony...they each got to ride it.

She's in Kindergarten!

Avery, our oldest baby, is officially in kindergarten as of Wednesday, August 19, 2009!! OH MY GOODNESS!! How the heck did this day get here so fast?!? Everyone says that they grow so fast, but fast doesn't quite describe how it flies by.

I wanted to call and check on her all day long like I normally do when she's gone from me this long. I wish that there was a video camera in there so that I could watch her from afar. Mrs. Wright was so great that morning and had them out something to color on right when they got in so they would be busy. You can definitely tell this ain't her first rodeo!

That morning we all hit the ground running. It started at 6:20 when Mother called and woke us up ~ thank goodness! I got dressed, we got the girls out of bed, put the muffins in the oven, bathed the girls, dried Avery's hair, got them dressed, fixed her lunch, ate the muffins and we were out the door. Whew! I'm tired just putting all that down. She had a bit of a melt down while we were putting on the socks. Who knew they would be a size too big and come up over her knee caps? I only got the size that fit her according to her shoe size!! Thankfully I found another pair of socks that would work. She got it together and we were gone. The day was made even more special because all of her grandparents were here to surround her and encourage her with their love. Yes, we are all so very blessed.

Due to the traffic and limited parking, we decided to park a block away. Jeff and I held her hand on each side with her in the middle. She was so very excited and not nervous in the least. As we started walking down her hall my tears started forming. Mrs. Wright had the crayons out and the papers on their desks. So right away, they all got to business. Come to find out, the little girl that sits next to her lives right around the corner from us on our street! Avery barely even noticed that we were there at all. They stood up during the announcements to do the pledge of allegiance and she did so great. *Sigh* I was so very proud of her. Then it was time to leave for the boo hoo breakfast. I can't believe I only had a few tears well up. The breakfast was great because we were able to meet some more parents.

The day did not end there. That night I invited the family over to celebrate the day with us. Avery got to pick the meal. We had Sloppy Joes, sweet potato fries and lemon squares for dessert. We had Jeff's parents, Mother, Tracie, Barney, Jeb, Molly, Gabe, Renee, Izzy and Aunt Debra all over for dinner. Avery was so excited to tell everyone how much fun she had and how much she loved her school. Did I mention that we are blessed??

Needless to say, the day was a success. I just can't believe that this day is already here. I'm so shocked that it got here so quickly. That about wraps up our first day. Jeff and I are so excited to watch her learn and grow throughout this year. That's what helped us from getting so emotional on this day. Just the excitement that we have for her in all this year holds for her.

Us outside the school

Family pic taken by Mother

Avery and her Paps

Grammy and her girls

Mimere and her big girl

Gabe, Renee and a tired Izzy

Proud Mom & Dad

Molly, Tracie, Barney & Jeb

Aves & Aunt Deb

Cute Kendall

Kindergarten Eve

Where to begin this one.....

Where have the years gone?? Avery, my oldest baby, starts kindergarten tomorrow. She is embarking on a new journey in her life. I'm so very excited for her but oh how this hurts my heart. It hurts because time has gone by so quickly. It has been such a blessing to raise her the past 5 1/2 years. She has already taught me so much. She has such a sweet, sweet spirit. She is so very generous. She is so joyous and encouraging. I could go on and on all night. I'm apparently trying to stall this as much as I can. If you notice the time of the post, it's almost midnight. Normally on a week night, I'm in bed by 10:00! I'm not even the least bit sleepy. I've made the muffin mix and put them in the fridge to put in the tins tomorrow morning, I've ironed her jumper, I'm washing a load of whites with her blouses and I made the tuna fish for her sandwich tomorrow. **sigh** The one thing that I can't prepare tonight is how her first day will go. I'm so excited for her. God has given me so many things to show me that this is where He wants her...and I'm so thankful for that. Jeff and I are so excited for her to get home and tell us all about her day. You know us, we're having everyone over tomorrow night for dinner. Avery picked out Sloppy Joes and Lemon Squares for her dinner and dessert. So, I guess there is nothing else left for me to do tonight.....

December 2008, 5 years old

December 2009

What a Rockstar, January 2009

My gorgeous baby, August 2009, 5 1/2

Reunion Weekend

On July 18th, Mom and I left early that morning to drive to Shreveport. I had a couple of reunions to attend, and she had a baby shower to host. First thing on my agenda was to drive by mine and Jeff's first house. We got a house in Broadmoor and absolutely loved it. It was built in 1960. There are several things still there that we changed....the red door, the green (although much lighter) shutters and the trees on the side of the house that are much larger. My goodness how that took me back. That was before we even had kids!! Isn't it funny that after I left I just dropped in a furniture store and ran into my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Byers?! It was such a cute house that we worked so much one. Sigh

135 Bruce Ave., Shreveport, LA

Now onto my first reunion. Both of my reunions this weekend were because of facebook. My first cousin, Tiffany, is a year older than me. We had lost touch over the years...my phone that had her number in it years ago got dropped in water and I couldn't remember her married name. So it had been 9 years since we had seen each other last. We started corresponding on fb and texts a few times. Her oldest daughter, Meghan, was our flower girl when she was like 3 or so. Now she is about to be a FRESHMAN!!! Oh how old I feel. So anyways, we met at a great little sandwich place and had the best time. I don't think we stopped hugging each other in the parking lot for at least a minute...in the July heat!! We seriously talked for over 2 1/2 hours! LOL It was so great seeing her and being with her again. Just like true friends/family, we just picked right up where we left off last time. That meeting was such an answer to prayer for me. :)

Macy, me and Meghan

My gorgeous cousin, Tiffany

Then for the last reunion of the night. I got together with my Phi Mu sorority sisters from Northeast. About 70 of us or so have found each other on fb. Instead of saying over and over, "we need to get together," I decided to pick a weekend. I picked a weekend back in May to make it easier for us to plan around it. There were about 30 of us there! And about 5 of us were from DFW....sad that it took us going to Shreveport to get together. LOL Oh my goodness I had such a great time. It was amazing how fantastic everyone looked. Talk about picking up where we left off. But my goodness most of us were so different...moms, married, etc. It was so much fun seeing everyone. There were more of us from my pledge class than any other. This will definitely be an annual thing that we do for sure. There were so many from Monroe that didn't get to make it because of vacations. But I am so glad that we were able to do it.

This weekend I experienced one of my firsts. I actually lost my voice from talking so much! LOL Seriously, I did! I talked with mom the entire trip over to Shreveport that morning. Then the 2-3 hours with Tiffany. Then there was the 5-6 hours that night with my sisters. Then I had the ride back home with Mom. I couldn't talk the next 3 days!!! I guess there is a first for everything.

Sandy, my pledge mom, and Ashley

Raygan, my last college roommate

Kristin, Sarah & Jennifer Kinnard

Jennifer Roach, my first college roommate

Cammie

Our Hot July 4th

OK, yes I do know that it's been almost 2 months since July 4th, but at least it's better than never!! LOL So on July 4th Jeff's parents asked us to join them for their anniversary night at the last minute. They were celebrating their 40th anniversary at a nice, new hotel in downtown Dallas. Once we secured babysitters with Mom and Leah, we were off. We stayed at The Joule which is one of the few luxury hotels in the world with Starwood hotels. There were good things and bad things about the hotel. The worst thing was the pool. We were all ready to go and relax by the pool first thing ~ which is pretty much the norm for anyone at a hotel in the summer. However, their pool isn't your typical pool. It's on the roof and surrounded by these big futon-type beds ~ which was great. In fact, I felt like I was walking into a pool in Miami...loud music, beds, scantily clad women, etc. But the pool there isn't for the guests at the hotel. It's actually owned by another company and you have to reserve the beds/sitting there. It's a $350 tab minimum to have a bed! Even if we had wanted to do that it wasn't an option since they were all taken. Needless to say we were all pretty disappointed to realize that we weren't getting to relax by the pool. Dad was pretty upset to say the least.

For dinner, we went to Ol' Warsaw. It's a very nice restaurant that we haven't been to in years. In fact, it's the place that Jeff took us for his Sr. Prom. LOL They have a crab-stuffed filet mignon that is absolutely delicious. Let me tell you that I ate every last bite of that steak!!! Oh yes I did and yes it was fantastic!!!

Now I'm saving the best for last. ;) Mom & Dad got a suite and we got a standard room. We all went to our rooms when we first got there. After we got settled, Jeff and I went down the hall to their room. They offered to change rooms with us for that night so that we could have the bigger one if we wanted (since they were planning to stay the entire weekend). I told them absolutely not. We LOVED our room ~ or should I say I? When I walked in the room, my mouth dropped to the floor. I will have a round bed one day. Not only was there a round bed, but the carpet was zebra print and the bed had red leather bed skirt!!! Yes, I did say red leather!! The wall across from our bed was full mirror with a flat screen TV ~ who the heck would want to watch TV?!? ;) It was a very small room...felt like we were in Europe, but very modern. So we had a fabulous time to say the least.

The view from the door of our bed

The wall directly across from the bed

The bathroom vanity...yes, that is a red counter and a red light in the sink!!

The shower...if you couldn't tell

Our robes that matched the carpet and room

Good-Bye Mammaw and Pappaw

Jeff's grandmother on his mom's side, Mammaw Small, has been in the nursing home for a few years now. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1981. The last year has been rough for her in that she could barely even get out of bed and talk above a whisper. It was very hard to watch her go through that. She buried her husband back in the summer of 1993. So I know that she was so ready to go and meet him again in heaven but her little body just wouldn't quit. She finally went to be home with the Lord on July 24 at the age of 80. So we packed up and drove down to Many, La on the 26th and got there just in time for the end of the viewing. It was so great to see all of the family. It's so sad that it is so hard for all of us to get together at the same time! Her service was on Monday morning. Jeff was a pall-bearer and the girls did really well.

Then 2 1/2 weeks later we get the call that Pappaw Troha died on the morning of August 9. He was so ready to go...we know because he told us several times. He buried Mammaw in March of 1995 ~ less than two years after Pappaw Small. So back we went to Many for the second funeral. Jeff had worked Saturday night and had to work again Sunday night. I didn't want to wake him up just to tell him, so I waited until he woke up. We left on Monday after I was done at the hospital. Again, it was so great that everyone of us was all there together....Dad even flew Rob in from San Francisco. Pappaw started living with Mom and Dad while I was pregnant with Kendall. He so enjoyed the girls coming over so much. He would just laugh and laugh at them. It was fun tryig to figure out who was having more fun ~ Pappaw or the girls. I am so grateful that we were able to spend so much time with him during his last 3 years. That definitely made saying good-bye so much easier. I was curious how the girls would take his passing since they had spent so much time with him. I didn't keep them out of the viewing ~ I felt like they could decide what they wanted to do. Kendall just wanted to hug and kiss him over and over. She asked if he was sleeping or "night-night" so I told her yes he was. She leaned over and said, "Sweet dreams." It was all I could do to keep it together (and still is as I'm typing this now). I'm not one that has ever wanted to look at anyone in a casket. I don't know if it's because I don't want my last visual memory to be of them dead in a casket or what, but I think that Avery is the same way.

I will say that this was a huge learning experience for me that I didn't expect to get. There are 2 things that I learned from this. First, I learned that I need to let someone go if they are ready to go. By that I mean no feeding tubes or whatever I can do to sustain their lives anymore than what they want. I have never thought about this before really. This isn't easy to do but I think it's what is right. In other words, if Mom just starts deteriorating later in life, I'm not going to do everything I can to keep her alive just so she won't die. If her body starts shutting down, I'm going to let it do that if that's what she wants (but I will do what I can to keep her comfortable and out of pain). If she wants to live on machines then I'll let her do that ~ either way it's her choice to make. I pray that I don't have to make that decision, but I'm much more prepared to do that now if it does come to that.

The second thing that I learned is that I am by no means ready in any shape or form to lose my Mom. I can't even think about it yet. I'm praying that she takes after her Aunt Doris and is able to fix her roof in her 80s. Well, I know that she wouldn't just because she has a bad knee, but that she could if it weren't for that. I can't imagine what I would do without my in-laws either. That might sound funny, but since I've known them since I was 16 they feel more like parents to me than in-laws. I'm so very blessed by that. But I realize now that it's my parents' turn next since all of their parents are gone now. I pray that they live long, high-quality lives.

Thank you, Father, for giving me 2 sets of parents and for me never wondering if I was loved or not. I know that I have been blessed beyond measure with the family and friends that You have surrounded me with and I thank You for that.

Mom, Mammaw Small, Kendall, Jeff & Avery

August 2007

Uncle Joes, Pappaw, Aunt Debra, Uncle Gary & Dad

Pappaw and all of his grandkids (except Jeff since he was working of course)

Taken on his 89th birthday in May 2009

Avery's Big Day

Some of you know this but most of you probably don't. We have been interested in a charter school that is 5 minutes away from our house for the past 2 years. Jeff found out about this school while looking at schools on the internet before he was in CRNA school!! (to us that seems like an eternity ago if it's before he began school) It had these great ratings on the website he was looking at, but so did the neighborhood school that we are zoned for. Then wouldn't you know that a patient of mine had her children there and they loved it. They had previously had their girls in the private, catholic school system and enjoyed it but didn't enjoy the check they paid for it so much.

So, you are probably like Jeff and I were when we first started looking into this. What the heck is a charter school? I remembered Laura Bush bringing them about....at least that's who I think it was. Basically they are public, private schools. Meaning you don't have to pay for the education there and they get more freedom to choose their curriculum. In other words, they don't center their curriculum around the TAKS test!!! Our school is called Arlington Classics Academy. Their vision and mission statement is on their website.

Once you are interested in going to one of these you have to fill out an application. The way that they determine the students that get in is by a lottery. So they had over 200 applicants just for kindergarten alone. See, once you're in you are always in and siblings get in also. So out of the 80 possible seats for kindergarten only 21 of them were available after the siblings got counted in. Yeah, you can see that the odds were stacked against us. But I just kept saying, "Someone has to fill those seats. Why not Avery?" So they did the lottery back in April and we found out that we were #18 on the list. WOO HOO!!! I was ecstatic with that. It's amazing how many people change their minds about this too...not that I'm complaining about it or anything. ;) But they do testing before the child starts to give the parents a good idea what the child is struggling with before they start. They are only on kindergarten-level material for the first 6 weeks and then move onto first grade for the rest of the year. So, you can see that it isn't for everybody. They don't fail the test, like at magnet schools where you take a test and have to make a certain grade to get into the school. They do the testing during the summer so I decided to call and check in every now and then to see if we had moved up the list. In the beginning of July I called and found out that we had moved to 11. They were beginning to test later that week so she told me to call back at the end of the month to see if we moved up more. So last week I called on Thursday and found out that we were #5! Yes, I was jumping up and down and screamed in the lady's ear. Then on Monday I found out we were #2. When I called yesterday morning I found out we moved to #1 and then an hour later they were calling me to let me know that we were in!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!! The next thing we had to do is get her tested. We asked for anytime yesterday since we were both at home.

Let me preface this with ~ Avery has been so excited to start kindergarten. She has been counting the months down since May. She's been telling everybody how long she has. It's been so great to watch her fervor. So I'm quite elated when I tell her that she has to go to her new school to meet a teacher and have a test. She begins laughing with excitement and then I see her eyes start to change then her demeanor. I physically saw her get overwhelmed and feel anxiety. She started bawling in less than 2 minutes. She was saying that she was shy and scared to meet the teacher, she didn't want us to drop her off and leave her there. Jeff and I were picking our jaws up off the floor. Is this the same child that I was just describing to you?? Again, God is good. Praise the Lord that we got in just in the nick of time so we could do the testing. Otherwise, I think we would have dealt with this and had more trauma the first day of school. So of course we resorted to bribery...a sucker to start off with and frozen yogurt from Pure Bliss at the end if she got it together. Guys, that didn't even stop her crying ~ which is shocking since that is a HUGE treat for us since we rarely eat that. My poor baby.

We asked the teacher if we could just walk back with her. We got a first grade teacher since none of the K teachers were there that day. She showed Avery a K room then her room and was just wonderful. Avery finally settled down and went in the room with the teacher by herself. Jeff and I entertained Kendall who kept going down the hall asking, "This my room?" She has never gone to a different "school" than Avery. After they were done, she asked us to leave the girls in the office while she went over the results with us. Apparently the principal usually does this, but he had a meeting. She said that Avery did great and had no problems. They did numbers, shapes, reading sight words, reading comprehension, letters, counting and a few things more. There wasn't a single concept that didn't have a check beside it to show that she got it. We were so excited with that news...and a little proud too. As we were leaving she told us that she didn't want to go and wanted to start kindergarten then. WOO HOO. We had our daughter back.

So now we're on to buying the uniforms. We start school on the 19th. So it's going to be here quicker than I'm ready for. I know the first day is going to be bad when I started crying in the parking lot of Target as we left from buying her school supplies! Yes, I did. That morning of the first day they have a Boo Hoo/Woo Hoo breakfast for all the new parents at the school where they provide the food ~ and Kleenex for those who need it.

I'm Back!!

My goodeness...has it seriously been over a month since I last blogged?!? I have missed this so much...funny that I miss it when I feel like I'm not that good at it. Apparently it's more therapeutic for me than I knew. ;) But since it's been over a month, I have quite a few things to blog about to catch up on...so bare with me. (That word "bare" is bothering me but "bear" doesn't look that great either!...is it bothering you too??) And some of the reason why I haven't blogged in so long is because someone moved our USB that I need to download pictures. Forget that, I'm just going to come back and fill them in later!! Don't know why I didn't think of that before! ;)
Praise God, we all made it through the month of June!! I pray that we never have to be separated like that again!! I know, there are couples that have to spend time apart all of the time for whatever reason. But Jeff and I aren't good at that.
Jeff returned on Friday, June 26, and had the next week off completely. That was SO nice. Especially since we swapped houses with his parents that week....in the 100 degree weather!! Poor Jeff. Yes, you read correctly...we SWAPPED houses with my in-laws. For those of you that don't know already, they decided to move to Many, La, which is pretty much where they are from. But to keep from paying the state income tax in Louisiana, he has to have a house here that he pays property taxes on. Initially, they planned on getting an apartment. However, when they started looking they realized 2 things: #1 They are wasting their money with paying rent #2 Our mortgage was the same, if not less, than most of the apartments they were looking at. They needed us to stay in their house after they moved for a little while anyways to see if the market got better in a few months so they wouldn't lose money with the sale. So we got to double in size while they halved in size over here. The house in Many is quite large. We still aren't at 100% but we're at 90%. It's been nice. Pretty confusing for my Kendall but she's got it now. :) The houses are only 0.4 miles apart so that helped. But moving into a house that is not empty is quite the challenge....one room at a time.
While we were moving I had an exchange with Kendall that I wanted to blog about so bad. I'm so thankful that the Lord let me remember it! ;) So the girls and I were driving over to our old house for something. I turned on the street to enter the neighborhood and yelled, "HOLY COW!!"
K: What hattened Mommy?
Me: Oh nothing honey, that truck just scared me...a truck gunned behind me after I turned and it was really loud and about gave me a heart attack
K: Oh! No, no cow!!
Oh, I just love kids and what they say. I cracked up! I just said, that's right and kept going. I mean really, was there any reason to argue with her that there wasn't a cow??
It was so great to get to go back to our church finally. I can't remember the last time I missed going to church for an entire month!! I don't think I ever have since I was in the hospital with cancer as a child....so i can't say I haven't ever missed that much before. Don't get me wrong, we went to mass with his family while in Many. But you know that it's not the same when you go to another church than yours...especially one that worships quite different. So we were so glad to be back. Fortunately, I'm friends with many of the people that we see up there and got to fill them in on why we weren't there at all.
Here's Avery's little tidbit. Here was a conversation we had on the phone yesterday.
A: Mommy, can I give my horse to Melanie?
M: The stuffed one? (that she actually likes...she isn't a big stuffed animal person even though she has so many of them)
A: Yes ma'am
M: Well of course, you can. It's yours to either give away or keep. That's so very sweet of you to give it to Melanie.
A: Thank you, Mommy!!
My sweet, Avery. She is SO giving!! I will say that she's gotten that honestly from both sides. For those of you that don't know them well, my in-laws are the most giving people that I know. They give almost to a fault! I have learned so much from them. Then there's my sister who is the same way. I don't care how little or how much she has, she will give it to anyone in a heartbeat. She has always been that way....even when we were kids. It just tugged at my heart to have that conversation with her. That isn't the first thing she's given away, but that exchange was so precious to me.
Avery has a big shiner on her right cheek now. Last weekend Leah and Brenden took her to Hawaiian Falls in The Colony. That's a water park that is pretty big and is owned by Christians. This was her first experience at a water park. So she was pumped. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that she started swimming in 2 hours. She went from not knowing how (she knew the basics from lessons last year but had never swam outside of them) to swimming, jumping in and going down a big slide in about 2 hours time!!! Leah was meeting my brother, Robby, and his family over there and begged to take her too. We let her know that she would be in so much trouble if she didn't stay right by everyone in the pools over there. There have been so many drownings in DFW already. She did great. But you guys know my children. We have dramas occur to us quite often. So when Leah called on the way home saying that she bumped her cheek I was thrilled that was all. Jeff was a little upset like he always is when anything happens to one of his girls...whether he's there or not. But I reminded him that her coming home with a shiner was much better than a broken bone or going unconscious from partly drowning. ;) I'll post the pic later.
This is going to be a big weekend for me though. I'm leaving, and brining my mom, for Shreveport tonight. I've had a reunion with my sorority sisters from Louisiana planned for Saturday for a few months now. I'm SO excited!! There's going to be over 30 of us there...if everyone that said they were coming shows up. You know how that goes. ;) But facebook has connected me with so many people that I haven't seen in years. This is one of the products because of that. We're all meeting at Superior...which is like Joe T Garcia's over here in FW. I'm going to see my cousin that I haven't seen in over 9 years too. I will post the pics when I get back. I'm going to bite the bullet and buy another cable...no telling how long it will take for me to find!
So this weekend is going to be a big weekend.

Kendall's Shiner

Seriously, I must give Kendall credit where credit is due.  If she is trying her hardest to get a visit from CPS (Child Protective Services, for those of you that are fortunate enough not to know), then I have to give it to her.  Poor baby!!  Yesterday she tripped on her own feet and landed on the brick outside.  So here is the result of that fall.  As my Dad would say, the brick won that one.  Bless her poor little heart.  But at least I got a great picture of her...looking at the camera and all!  :)

My sweet, black-eyed baby

17 Years Now!!

So, today marks the day 17 years ago that Jeff asked me to go out with him! I cannot believe that it's been that long!!  We actually met on May 30 at Six Flags...and got married on that day 6 years later. 17 years ago he drove to Shreveport to see me. I made a picnic for us with KFC chicken and homemade brownies. (note to self, always ask someone if they like a food that you are going to make/bring for them before you do) Isn't it in a southerner's DNA to love all things fried?!? LOL He never even told me he didn't like it, but his friend did. Jeff ate it with a smile being the gentleman that is always is.  But he really loved the brownies. I guess they were so good he thought I was a keeper. He asked me to go to his car real quick after we finished eating. So here we are sitting there in his car with navy, leather interior with no air on and sweating like pigs as he asks me to go out with him. He gave me a necklace to wear that had a gold baseball glove. Isn't he so sweet?!?  Even though we were so young, I knew that I wanted to marry him from that first summer.  He truly swept me off of my feet the day we met and they still have yet to touch the ground. 

We were in Many on our wedding anniversary last weekend. I just started thinking of how 17 yeras ago on that day I had no idea how God was going to change my life so much. I have been so blessed to have him at such a young age. I've had less break-ups, less bad dates, etc. I told him that day at Six Flags that it felt like I'd known him for years instead of hours. We just hit it off so great from the beginning.

Jeff, thank you for loving me and asking me to marry you. You have given me such joy and 2 amazing children in the 17 years that I have loved you. Thank you for always seeing the best in me and trying to make me see it too...that is such a hard job, I know! Thank you for making sure that I never doubt your love and devotion to me. Thank you for your patience, support and for making me a better me.  I am so honored to be your wife. I can't wait to see what the next 50 years bring us. I love you

Jeff & I at our anniversary dinner at The Mariner in Natchitoches, LA on Sibley Lake

At his parents' anniversary July 2008 

Happy 89th Birthday, Pappaw!!

I can't believe that I forgot to put this in here last week!! Well, I guess I know where my mind was...my hubby leaving me the next week. But while we were down in Many for Memorial Day Weekend, we threw Pappaw his birthday party on Sunday, one day early. He's lived with Jeff's parents for the last 3 years until the last month or two. He took a turn for the worse pretty quickly when he got pneumonia and hasn't been the same since. He's now in a nursing home in Many (his home-town for over 20 years). Almost everyone in the family was there...all but Jeff. It was so great to have so many generations of Trohas there together. Pappaw had 5 pieces of cake and 3 scoops of ice cream! Guess he was hungry. I'm so blessed to have known Pappaw for 17 years now. I always loved it when he would call me his doll...quite the charmer ~ when he wants to be. :) We miss you Dottie!

What a sharp-looking Pappaw!

Me and the girls with Pappaw

Tracie & Aunt Debra

Aunt Deb, Uncle Gary, Dad, Colin & Pappaw

Izzy & Kendall

What a great family pic of Renee, Gabe & Izzy (on the 3rd try LOL)

Uncle Joe & Jason

Megan, Uncle Joe & Aunt Carole

Pappaw with all the kids

Pappaw with all the grandkids...except Jeff