December 28, 2011

End of the Year update

Well, I'm 3 1/2 weeks out of surgery. So far the total is 34 pounds lost. I can't see a huge difference when I look in the mirror, but WOW do my clothes feel different! I feel like a palentologist some days. Finding bones that I'd forgotten I had! I'll post pics when you can actually SEE that I've lost weight!

As for the rest of my life, I still try to spend time with Dad and some days are pretty good. A short hospital visit scared us all, but for the moment he is holding his own. It makes me grateful for another holiday season that we got to spend together.

Hope 2012 brings lots of positive changes for our family and the opportunity to serve where we are needed.

November 29, 2011

It's my turn to share days of gratitude...
1. My Heavenly Father
2. Jesus Christ
3. The Plan of Happiness that God has for me
4. My husband
5. My sweet kiddos
6. My parents
7. My brothers and their families
8. My friends
9. Mallorie & Kayla
10. My job

That's my top ten. I could go on and on. I'm so blessed. I have so much to be grateful for, I try to show it more than just this time of year. I hope all my loved ones know how much I appreciate them.

And PS- I'm thankful for FaceBook that lets me keep in touch with all these wonderful people!!

November 27, 2011

Watching the competition

Great form

Our art winner

The artist and her picture

Art awards

Kaleaha's awards for her picture!

Catching Up is Hard to Do

Trying to keep up should be so much simpler than this. I assume that I'm not busier than anyone else in life, but it seems like all we've done lately is either go to do the doctor's office or wait on results from a doctor. After 2 years and a million hoops that have been jumped through I finally have gotten the approval to have my Gastric Bypass. I'm SO excited!!! But, because we're so close to the end of the year, I had to start my liquid diet a couple of days before Thanksgiving. So grateful for my mom, who immediately volunteered to move our family dinner up so that I could participate. Love her! She always does her best to be or do exactly what we need. I'm so blessed to have goodly parents.
I was talking about doctor's appointments, meaning my Dad has had more than his share lately. I was talking to my BFF earlier this week and we were talking about how this stage in life is not fun. I HATE seeing my Dad sick and being unable to do anything to help. I feel bad for my Mom who has the biggest load to carry, trying to work and be there for Dad and taking him from one doctor to the other and being up all night when he's in pain. I wish there was more that I could do to help them. They are always so willing to help me. They coordinate with my MIL, who's awesome too. I'm grateful to have all of them in my life.
Back to my GB! Like I said, it's been a long time in coming and I'm SO excited for the time to finally be here! I had to go in for all of the pre-op admission stuff on Monday the 21st. I started my liquid diet on Tuesday the 22nd and as of yesterday, Saturday the 26th, I've already lost 10 lbs.
WooHoo! I'm very pumped! Can't wait to see what this week holds for me!
On another happy note, my children are AMAZING. Kaleaha (and I) survived her first overnight visit. During surgery I'll be in the hospital for two nights. So far, that has been the most stressful part of this whole process. The fact that I have to be away from them overnight twice in a row is much more tramatic for me then for them. She survived and was so proud of herself. Such a big girl.
She has also done extremely well in school and gymnastics. All A's in school for both 9 weeks this year. Our Parent/Teacher conference went very well. Her teacher, Mrs. Reith, loves her and is doing a great job with her. We had the first gymnastics meet of the year and Kaleaha did well ending up with 3rd All Around. It was only a fun meet, but gave the girls a chance to wear their new leos and warm ups. They looked so grown up.
Krennan is such a sweet kiddo. He's got little moments of PURE meanness. He cracks me up! I've never seen a kid go from cuddly and sweet to trying to bite or spank you in nanoseconds! He's a hoot!
Anyway, Just another day in my very blessed life. I'm so grateful to be here at this time, in this place for these experiences.

October 4, 2011

My sleeping beauties. The bright light is the alarm clock going crazy that no one is paying attention to. 
LOVE them!

September 10, 2011

Finally vacation pictures

Well, like I said before, we went to the Welk Resort in Branson for a few days to cool off before school started. 30+ days of over 100 degree weather is 30 days too many for me. I have never been an outdoors person and this weather makes me dislike it even more! I mean really, who wants to be outside in this heat? You can't even breathe normally!
So, Branson, here we come...





I hope you can see parts of the resort because it was great. Maybe not as much for older kids, but this was perfect for our family. Great place to stay and not very expensive!

We also went to see Noah the Musical and it was pricey but WELL worth the investment. It made it even better when we ran into some gymnastics friends while we were there.

One of the days that we were there, we hit the outlet mall and came home with only 2 bags. VERY unusual! Ron and I both found shoes that we liked, but nothing spectacular for the kiddos.

We also did Ride The Ducks again. We have been on both tours in Branson before with Kaleaha, but never with Krennan. He loves the outdoors and likes to ride with the windows down in the car, so we figured that he would have a blast! He did. Picked up the quacker very quickly and had a great time taking in the outdoors!







I've got hundreds of pictures of the waterpark. It was so hot, even in Branson that we spent a lot of time in the water. Again, a great place to stay for a family vacation.






Snowcones were also a mid-day treat at the resort. We had more than our share of them, for sure!

Then, last but not least, we ended our vacation by stopping at the Jones Center in Springdale on the way home. Another great place. Ron and the kids had never been. We had a great time and even made it down the waterslide a million times!






Then, it was back to the real world...
School, Work, Gymnastics, etc...

August 14, 2011

August Vacation...

The only thing good about all of this record breaking heat has been vacation at the waterpark in Branson. We stayed at The Welk Resort and it was AWESOME!
Pictures to follow...

Mi Vida Loca

Been a crazy couple of months again. Since the last time I posted we've celebrated Krennan's 2nd birthday and Kourtland's 11th birthday. We've had 2 sets of swim lessons, took the kids to their first rodeo with some friends from work, went to Vacation Bible School, I completed the last phase of my certification to be a Corporate Trainer, my BIL and SIL celebrated their first wedding anniversary, went with the whole family to see Mr. Popper's Penguins and Cars 2.
On Thursday the 23rd, we had the Rotary Officers Installation Banquet, where I took the treasurer's position for the 2nd year in a row. I took Dad with me so that he could see some members that he knew and hadn't seen in a long time. I really have enjoyed being a part of the Rotary organization. They are a great group of people and I've learned alot!
All of that's just in June!






We also, for added fun, threw in an ER visit for Krennan who cut his finger pretty deep on the shower door.




Then in July, life was no less crazy.

For the 4th, we celebrated on the 3rd and 4th. We met some friends, Stephanie and Bo in Alma to watch the Aquatic Center fireworks display and then on the 4th we stayed at home and had an impromptu mini-block party with our neighbors. It was a lot of fun.





I was on vacation for a couple of days after the 4th and on the night before I went back to work, we had to take Kaleaha to the ER, with stomach pains. This is at least the 3rd time we've been to the doctor and they can't find anything to diagnose her with. Poor thing, it's very frustrating for all of us.

That Friday, July 8, was the Stake Fill-The-Temple Day. Ron took a vacation day and went to do Sam's work. It was a very spiritual event for him. Wish I could have gone with him.

On Sunday, the 10th, Ron was released from his calling as Stake Executive Secretary where we got to breathe for about 10 seconds until he was called as Stake Clerk. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

On Monday, I happened upon a toddler race car bed. We've been talking about getting Krennan a bed for a while now and didn't really have the extra money to buy a bed and matching furniture. So we think that this in functional AND SUPER cute!


We also hosted the Sallisaw Young Women in our home for Stake Youth Conference. We got to enjoy their sweet spirit in our home for 3 days. They were awesome! We had a great time!

The 24th we had a mini family reunion with her sister and brother and their families, people we haven't seen in forever. A great evening!
My MIL, Kay, had surgery on the 25th to remove a tumor on her adrenal gland. We were at the hosital for 14 hours with her the first day. While we were waiting with her, we got news that my Dad's cancer numbers had doubled in the last 4 weeks. Good news for Kay, not great news for Dad. I'm so thankful for Mom who kept our kids the whole time so that we didn't have to worry about them.

During this time the kids also participated in the Fort Smith Public Library Summer Reading Program. Kaleaha as a single reader and Krennan as a "readee". We continued reading to them every night and at the end of the summer reading contest, she had read 104 books and Krennan had read 101. We took them to the library to turn in their book lists and they received a ton of prizes. They were both entered into a contest for the winning t-shirt from each category. Kaleaha got to pick a book out of a new shipment and it has been dedicated in her honor. She was the first to get to check it out of the library. Then we got a call a little while later that Krennan had won the t-shirt in his category. YAY! for little readers!







I'm still seeing the nutritionist at the hospital, hopefully the last step before I'm approved for surgery. This process has been delayed a little bit because she had a baby before our last visit, so we've been put off for at least 6 weeks again. Well, at least the kids will be in school now when I have it done.
The last 10 days in July were filled with activities and then the gym decided that we wouldn't have gymnastics the first week of August, so we quickly threw together vacation plans to take the kids to Branson. We didn't want to go to far because of health concerns for both of our parents.
Last exciting event in July, was Dad's birthday. He turned 74 and we went to Franks Italian to celebrate.

More to come in August...

June 15, 2011

Loving My Life

I'm still trying to look for the positive in every situation this year. So far I've been pretty successful except for the dogs. What in the world were we thinking? All of the reasons that we gave for not having animals in the first place are still valid except for the fact that I forgot one...THEY SMELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT loving the dogs at the moment. We are in the process of cage training them and that's not going so well either. I think I just don't have the time and patience for animals any more.

In other things, life goes on as usual. I've had two more friends that have lost husbands or wives and it makes me appreciate my little family even more than usual. I've been so blessed. For someone who for many years didn't think that they would have a family the promises that the Lord gives us are absolutely true. When he closes a door he does open a window. He hears the desires of our hearts and answers them in His time. That's always been the hard part for me; recognizing His time frame.

I haven't made a committed effort over the last couple of years to really study my scriptures either. Something I hope to change over the next few weeks. I've finished all of my YW Personal Progress except for Virtue because I haven't finished the Book of Mormon. That's my goal for the next few weeks. Seems like I always have something that gets in the way of my study time. I'm so proud of Kaleaha. She and Ron have started reading the BOM at night and she's doing such a great job. I hope that it's a real testimony builder for her.

She lost her first tooth this week after waiting for the last year to catch up with some of her friends. She was SO excited! I was all ready to let the Tooth Fairy know about her tooth when she went to bed that night and she burst into tears and begged me to please keep her tooth and not give it to the Tooth Fairy!!????!!! I was surprised to say the least! She has decided that she will keep them all until she's 13 and then hand them over.
Funny girl!

My sweet little Krennan turned 2 on Saturday. LOVE that kid. He just cracks me up. I kept trying to teach him to say I'm 2. He was having no part of it... Matt and Mandy and the boys got him an inflatable race car ball pit. He loves it! He "picks up" Kaleaha and they go for a ride. Then they go to the "drive in" and watch Dragon Tales. She plays along for a little while until it's her turn to drive and then he wants her out!

We are taking a break from bowling for the summer and it's probably a good thing! I'm not sure when we would have time to fit it in. This week is super crazy and then next week things should be back to normal crazy!

I've been pretty busy with work and Rotary for the last few weeks and I thought it was going to start slowing down by this time, but I guess not. I'm grateful for everything that I've learned from the different things I've gotten to experience. I've got a great group of girls who can run my branch while I'm gone which cuts down significantly on my stress level.

My Dad hasn't gotten very good test results the last couple of times that he's been at the doctor, so I'm worried about him. He's such a good man and we've been blessed that he has been able to go through so much and still be himself. He's an inspiration!

So much to be grateful for. I have a wonderful family and I try to appreciate the little things every day and work on the big things later.

May 17, 2011

May gratitude

So many things to be grateful for this month. I'm not even sure where to start. I think in my last post I talked about my friends husband who had passed away. In the last month I've had two more friends (slightly older) who unexpectedly lost their husbands and another set of friends that lost a child. How do people cope without the Gospel? I wonder if I was in the same situation would my testimony remain strong? I would like to say that I'm absolutely sure I wouldn't falter, but for now, I just have to express gratitude for the absolute knowledge that my Father In Heaven loves me and that there is a purpose for these trials and that if I remain faithful and endure to the end that I will be able to keep my family eternally. Much to be grateful for even if I didn't have any other blessings that could be counted.
Life continues to go on like normal at our house. The kids are crazy and fun and busy and complete chaos all the time. Gymnastics, School, Church, Work, and try to keep sane...I don't know if we're there yet, but we'll keep trying.

Mid-April I took the kids to Princess Day at Chick-Fil-A. That's the highlight of Kaleaha's year. Kaleaha and Krennan and I went and got to do face-painting and then we all rode in a limo. Krennan was VERY impressed with the limo. We tried to take pictures with Prince Charming's horse, but she was taking a break! Fun day with the kiddos. So glad that CFA does things like that!


Two weeks ago I was able to attend the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast. A variety of speakers from all different walks of life. Amazing insights, inspirational stories. Awesome day, then followed up by a relaxing Saturday spent at home.

This last weekend Mom and I went to Time Out for Women in Oklahoma City. I can't really explain how AMAZING it was!! I had, of course, heard of Hilary Weeks as an LDS recording artist but had never had the opportunity to actually hear anything she had performed. She was unbelieveable.
We had a great group of women that went with us and had a great time with them as well. A variety of speakers and musical talent. So uplifting and I was grateful to have the opportunity to go and be a part of that.
Grateful for my husband and mother-in-law who took over the kids so that we could go and enjoy ourselves. They were treated to fever and vomit for their generosity.

Also got a chance to go back to the OKC Memorial. About half of our group had never been. A very impressive reminder of how blessed we are.

It's been an busy but amazing few weeks!