Clearly behind

Clearly I have got behind on keeping up with this thing so over the next few days, I'll try to catch up and post some pics. First and foremost, we did get the bonus room finished and it's already gotten great use as a sewing room for me.

From the stairwell, looking onto my sewing area.

View from sewing area.

View from opposite end.

The room also served as a guest room for my father-in-law who came to visit for lil'G's 2nd birthday. Oh, did I say that? Yes, my baby boy is now 2 years old! I can't hardly believe it. Time flies so quickly. I have to do his 2 year letter some time this week. We're at the point now where people are asking if we plan on a third and all I can say is I'm not sure. I think S would be fine with just 2 or even prefer just 2, but I can definitely say that I'm not ready yet to close the door to a 3rd baby. So, we'll see. But back to baby G, or rather toddler (preschooler?) G. Here are a few pictures from his "Dactor" aka Tractor Birthday Party which was partly held at the park near our house and then moved to our house due to rain.

At the park , taking it all in.

Our friends having a good time.

Playing with friends.

Our one table smooshed in between the other 2 parties

held at the park at the same time.

Tractor and farm animal birthday cake

A full house

Bird-day ca-ak! YAY!

Digging in with our good friend, E.

Also, we've been working on getting our garden ready. This is our 3rd year with 2 large raised garden beds (in addition to the container garden on our back deck) and I'm trying something new this year to see if we get even better results. A couple years ago, I started hearing such great things about Square Foot Gardening and Mel's Mix and I finally purchased the book this past winter. Apparently, it's a specific garden mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite which plants thrive in and weeds do not. I will say it has cost a bit more to create and put together than what I had thought so it better be worth it or Mel might hear from me personally.

Mainly a container herb garden,

or as my mother used to laughingly call it "a pot garden."

The beginnings of the vegetable garden.

Mmmmm...more great veggies!

I am looking forward to a bounty of cucumbers, squash,

zucchini, okra, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers, tomatoes,

lettuce and green beans this summer. Think we got it covered?

You'd be surprised how much Mel's mix I put together and shoveled into those 2 beds. Wanna know? Over 18 cubic feet which worked out to 471 pounds of mix. *I am woman, hear me roar!* And yes, I am sore today from doing it. I still need to finish up the right bed. (I have French green beans to plant.) And lest I forget, weeding the pea gravel walkways and adding more pea gravel around the perimeter of the garden beds.

So as you can see, we've been keeping busy, but hopefully, these efforts will pay off in the long run. Stay tuned!

To my surprise...

S and I were watching the news this morning and what to my wandering eyes should appear is my "niece" who is really my cousin's child should appear. They were doing a feature on a woman who become an artist after working with the kids at Camp Smile-A-Mile which is a camp primarily for children with cancer or in remission for cancer. When my sweet niece was 2-1/2 she was diagnosed with leukemia. It was such devastating news, but through the grace of God she has been in remission for 8 or so years now. God is so good.

This wonderful, adorable, smart and sassy girl can be found at 1:15. I love you, sweet girl!

santa express plus christmas parade equals tons of fun

We have been having the best weekend. Last night we celebrated S's birthday with a great group of friends. I was a little nervous because we were bringing a couple of different circles of friends together and you never quite know how that will go, but it went really well. However, I think the best part was that it was an adults only party and my awesome aunt kept the boys for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about picking them up late at night.

It was surprisingly eery this morning though when we woke up, because there was no sounds of little children in the house and everything was in the same place we put it the night before. You know we've really adapted to having kids when the quiet and neatness gets to us. Ha! In any case, I really missed my stinkers and couldn't wait to pick them up, because...

We had tickets to the Santa Express! W and G are really into trains and they got to go on an hour long train ride with a certain man in red making an appearance. Making the whole experience even better was having my aunt and her granddaughter (my cousin's child) come with us. W and his cousin, T, are 6 months apart in age and always have a fantastic time together.

Checking it out with daddy

Mommy says don't forget about me!

Trains are cool.

Hi!

Cousins at play

Auntie S, T and W

All aboard!

Are we ready yet?

The choo-choo goes "WOO-WOO."

Scolding Santa's Elf for sneaking the train without a ticket.

I got to say that the conductor was pretty cool.

Visiting with the big guy, Mr. Ho Ho Ho himself.

The plan was to go home after the train ride but as luck would have it, the town I grew up in was having their Christmas parade so we decided to stay and enjoy it.

In front of my grandmother's house

which is now owned by my aunt.

Enjoying his view of the parade

No matter how old you are,

everyone loves parade candy.

Godspeed Uncle

When I woke up today, I grabbed the Ipod to check the weather and jump onto FB for a bit for an early morning commentary. What I found was my cousin's wife announcing the death of her husband's uncle, who is my uncle as well. (I think I shall post my thoughts on people rushing to post stuff like this on FB on another day.) Needless to say, I was a little stunned. You always are when it happens, even when you expect it to happen.

I knew my uncle had been in bad condition. In fact, he had lived in a lot of pain for several years. It's heartbreaking watching someone you love continually suffer so when death finally comes to them you feel relieved and guilty that you feel relieved.

In his prime Uncle R was quite a character. He was an incredible pharmaceutical sales man. My mom used to tell me that he was quite the BS'er and could sell ice to an Eskimo. More than that, he was a natural comedian. We often likened Uncle R to John Candy. There was always a story floating around about something he had gotten himself into.

My favorite memory of him though is of Uncle R, Aunt J, my parents and I riding around Lay Lake in Uncle R's pontoon boat with him blasting music from The Phantom of Opera. I'm sure we were quite the sight, but because of that day on the boat, my mother renewed her appreciation of broadway and I developed a life-long love for the arts, in particular The Phantom and broadway. I can't express how thankful I am to Uncle R for exposing me to something new that day.

Today, I imagine heaven is throwing quite the party. I can see him, my mother, and my Aunt Pam sitting around a table and jawing. I can hear bits and pieces of the conversation. It may go something like this, "Y'all ain't going to believe this, but..."

Godspeed Uncle R.

thankful

Tonight, I sit here exhausted, relieved, and more than anything...thankful. Thankful for the gift my sister was able to give to my father. You see, today, my sister "Seester" give my father a kidney and the gift of life renewed.

The Bible says "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13. But today my sister showed great love, amazing love. Thank you God for the gift of my sister. Bless her all the days of her life.

So how was today? Long, emotionally draining and wonderful. I arrived at the hospital a little after 5 am and spent some time visiting with dear seester. Then I went and visited with my father. They got us down to the OR right off the bat, but after there, we spent a lot of time waiting. They rolled both daddy and seester down to pre-op right around 6 am. Seester's surgery was to begin at 7:15 but didn't get started until closer to 8:30. We had been told that they would move daddy into surgery an hour or so after seester's surgery had begun. But at 10:00, they called and said they were having a more difficult time removing the kidney so it would be little longer. Fortunately they had given daddy some "I don't care" meds and he napped while his friend and I wondered if we would ever get to eat breakfast. When he woke from his "I don't care" nap, he fully proceeded to entertain us in his "I don't care" loopiness.

At 10:30, the medical team said "Let's go" and we went. Officially his surgery began a few minutes after 11 am. While daddy's surgery went without hiccups, seester's took a lot longer than we had anticipated and we were getting quite a bit concerned. A 1-1/2 hour surgery had morphed to an over 5 hour journey. Thankfully, it was nothing major and she returned to her room to recoup by late afternoon.

Seester had just been moved to her room when we received notice that daddy was in recovery. I can not really explain how I felt in that moment. I literally felt a weight lift off of me the moment the doctor told that he had done well and the kidney was working fantastically. What a great moment!

We figured that we would see daddy shortly, but that did not happen. Just like every other thing today, our time would drag on out. A little before 6 pm (marking our 12th hour in the waiting room), I went to the patient information desk and worked some magic with the staff. Somehow, I convinced them to allow the 6 of us in groups of 3 to see daddy so we could all go home and get some rest. Thank you, Jesus, you knew we were weary.

When I last saw them, they both were hungry and ready for some real food. I will take that as a good sign. :D

We finally have a new date

Daddy's kidney transplant has finally been rescheduled for September 8th. I'm so happy to have a date to work with. Funny thing is that I'm not as worried about the surgery (UAB has one of the best transplant units in the nation) as I am trying to make sure my boys are taken care of while I am trying to take care of Daddy. (BTW, I have already set-up a carepage for daddy that I will keep everyone updated through when we get to transplant time. That site is: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/crayp.)

You see, daddy will spend roughly one week in the hospital and approximately 2 - 3 weeks in the rehab unit. In the rehab unit, he will be required to have someone there 24/7 to assist him. Since my mother is gone and my sister will be recuperating from donating him her kidney, this responsibility will fall to me. This means that I will practically be living at the hospital for 3 weeks with dad. I'm kind of panicking on how to do it all: take care of daddy, taking care of my babies, making sure laundry and home stuff is done. Thankfully, I have a really good friend who lives close by and who has offered to help with the boys as well as my wonderful Aunt S who has always helped me out with the boys when I'm in a pinch.

(I know y'all are going to think I am nuts but I am putting it out here to help me stay organized.)

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays: S will drop the boys off my GF's house on his way to work. GF will take the boys to school and pick them up. (They are in school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) They will stay will GF until S can pick them up. I'll probably spend the night at the hospital unless a family member offers to relieve me.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are a different story: I need people to keep the boys which one of my aunts has offered to do, but I am also hoping that other family members are willing to stay with daddy during the day (and I'll stay the night) so the kids won't feel like I've totally abandoned them.

And then there are the weekends, I'd love to have someone to stay with daddy on Saturday mornings so I can have a little family time with S and the boys, especially since W starts soccer in September.

Most of all, just pray for peace and healing in all of this. That dad's surgery and transplant goes well. That, his body won't reject the kidney. That everything works out well for him and the care of my children.

San Antonio Vacation: Yee Haw!

When I originally told my father that we were going to fly out to San Antonio for vacation, his response was "Oh no." When I said S was flying out the day before and it would just be me and the boys flying out the following day, his response was "Oh God." LOL! You would have thought I has told him that one of us had cancer. Now, I know that trekking out with 2 small children wouldn't appeal to an older person, but after staying at home for a year, I was ready to do whatever it took to go somewhere, even if it meant I had a day of Hell in order to get there. Ha!

I did a little research prior to our flight on how to keep the kids happy and off we went. The boys did much better than I had ever expected. Really, the worst part was lugging 2 car seats, 2 suitcases, 1 back back for mama, and a lightweight stroller by myself into and out of an airport. Once it was checked in, we were all copasetic.

The key to keeping W happy was bringing his pack back filled with beloved items and packing a few new (little) presents. I had brought 2 new gift wrapped books and a little toy set that he had gotten for his birthday but hadn't been allowed to open. I also loaded a new Thomas the Tank Engine movie on the Ipod and he was set. The key to keeping little G happy was to ply him with snacks. On the first flight, he had a sucker, yogurt pretzels, fruit snack, airline pretzels, his sippy of water, and another lollipop. I was covered head to toe in sticky but we had made it through the flight with 2 quiet children.

Little G is my child even if he looks like his daddy. Look at him sticking his tongue out at me while waiting for flight #2.

W showing off his Toy Story book bag. He wanted to wear it every where!

We had a fantastic time in San Antonio! S was there for a conference so mama and her little ducklings headed out on our own during the mornings, nap in the afternoon and then go out with daddy in the evening. Since we arrived Tuesday afternoon and we were adjusting *cough, recuperating, cough*, we kept it easy that night and just went out to an authentic Tex-Mex restaurant - Pico De Gallo. They has a fantastic, but loud Mariachi band which little G loved, but scared the bejeezus out of my big boy. He sat in my lap, covering his ears with my hands and asked to go home. Once the band took a break, he was a happy boy and even told the waiter, "Tanks, tanks for making da noise!" Maybe he enjoyed the music a little? Ha!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we went to the San Antonio Children's Museum, ate in a Saloon and swam in the hotel pool. The children's museum wasn't as nice as McWane, but it gave us a place for the boys to run around and burn off some energy in a cool place, safe for kids. The Saloon was apart of the Texas Buckhorn Museum, a tourist trap, but it did give us a neat place to eat and people watch.

G climbing through a little house and playing peek-a-boo.

W having a good time playing with balls.

Mounted animals at the Saloon.

I'm a cowboy. YEE-HAW!

Why yes, that would be a grizzly bear and woolly mammoth behind us.

What would be San Antonio without the Riverwalk and The Alamo? San Antonio is beautiful city with a lot of history and culture plus great amusement parks like SeaWorld, Six Flags Fiesta and Schlitterbahn Water Park (in nearby New Braunfels). If you haven't been or haven't been recently, I would highly recommend it.

Beautiful.

Mama & her boys

Daddy and his boys

Look at those sweet pink cheeks.

Sweet, but hot little boy.

Another view of the Mission

So cool.

The west side of the Mission.

I love this tree.

We capped off the trip by going to Sea World and San Antonio Zoo. W was excited and then terrified of the Sea Lion Show. He's not a big noise kid and it got to him. Little G clapped and laughed through it all. Thankfully, by the time, we saw Shamu, W had calmed down and actually enjoyed seeing the show.

But all good things must come to an end and we were happy to come home on Sunday. We are ready to settle in fall and a new routine as the boys prepare to go to school part time in a couple of weeks. We are truly blessed .

i'll probably get in trouble for posting this, but sometimes you just gotta let it out

My dad has a girlfriend, although he introduces her as his "friend", but according to my sister, she's his girlfriend. The holding hands kind of girlfriend. (I'm not willing to mentally go any farther than that right now.) My dad is with her every day he's not in dialysis (3 days a week). Oh, here's the real kicker. She has the same name as my mom. *thud* So, yes, that really weirds me out. She doesn't look like my mama, but it is...odd? disturbing?

I know he is lonely and needs, rather deserves, companionship. I don't begrudge him that but it's kind of hard to take. Part of me wants to cry out "My mother be gone only 7 months. Why can't you wait at least a year before you start seeing someone else?" Part of me wants to avoid it. And another part of me is just plain angry about the entire situation as in "Why did my mother have to die?". I wasn't mentally prepared for this reality.

Our relationship isn't exactly close, and where the death of S's mother seems to draw his relationship with his dad closer, I don't know if that's exactly the same case here. And, that really stings. I'd love to be able to talk to him about my mother and what I'm going through and what he's going through, but he closes up when I mention her. Maybe, it's too hard for him, but maybe, it's what I need. So what do you do? I guess, we're at a cross-roads.

Zoo time

We recently renewed our Zoo membership and have really taken advantage of it. Every morning as W gets ready for preschool, he asks if we are going to the "animules house." If it's a nice day, I'm prone to say "Let's go." W gets a kick out of all the animals and telling me what they say. Here are a few pics from a recent trip where we met up with a couple of my aunts and 2 of my cousins' children.

A beautiful water lily.

W taking it all in at the "animal house." He's really into the Zoo and animals right now. I probably heard 50 times on the way to the Zoo, "I wuuvvvvvv animules." HA! G on the other hand was just happy strolling around and sucking on his strap.

The lion sleeps tonight.

ROOOOAAAARRR. What a beautiful tiger!

The Three Stooges looking at vultures. When I asked W what vultures say, he responded with "gobble, gobble." I guess that works.

The "pippo" as W likes to call her.

W and his cousin, T, playing in the water.

T and E having a girls moment.

These are so much fun. W kept on trying to figure out where the next spray was coming from. I wish they had been around when I was a kid.