Grace in Small Things, Part II

1.) Okay, the first is a big thing! Mark's PET Scan came back clear, which means the cancer has not spread to any vital organs!

2.) John's cute haircut today, that makes him look like a miniature man.

3.) So many special emails from friends that make me know that I am loved. I have truly come to believe that I could not make it without my friends.

It was a GREAT day today, for many reasons. Thanks to everyone who made it that way.

Grace In Small Things

I'm taking the lead from Jess and Chantal and joining in with this little project called 'Grace In Small Things'.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you found grace in something small today.

1.) A lunch spent laughing with friends.
2.) Mark sharing a little bit of good news with me on the phone.
3.) An email from my sister, reminding me that we're not polar opposites.
4.) A message from my cousin to say that we're in her prayers.
5.) Sunshine for most of the day! (this helps b/c I've been friggin' cold way too much lately!)

Stepping Up to the Plate

I'm not the type of the person who just drifts through life, not wondering all the horrible 'What If's?'.

-What if someone I love gets into a horrible car accident?
-What if one of my kids gets sick?
-What if I find out I have some dreaded disease?
etc., etc.

Sometimes, I think about these things far too often than the 'average' person should.

I was shocked none the less to find out last week that Mark has cancer. If anyone should have seen a big, bad thing coming, it should have been me, right? But I really didn't. We're not sure exactly what type yet, but we're pretty sure it's cancer of the throat.

He's dealing with it amazingly well. Me, on the other hand . . .
I really thought I was strong, but now I'm feeling not so much. It's so much up and down, I feel a little insane.

Good has been coming out of it though. I hope it comes out all good in the end. Please keep us in your thoughts. We're having to step up to the plate.

Can you believe it's been 10 years since we partied like it was 1999?

Well, actually I don't think I partied in 1999 either. Probably fell asleep WAY before midnight, with a just-turned-2 and 4-year old.

Said children are busy on their I-pods and cell phones as we speak. Weird.

I don't make resolutions, but I have been thinking about changes that should be made. I'll call them thoughtolutions, so as not to have them set in stone. And that will ease my guilt when none of them are accomplished.

1.) Stop it with the jealousy. If you're jealous, it means something's missing in your life, right, so do something to work on it. MUCH easier said than done.

2.) Tell people how much you love/appreciate/feel lucky to have them.

3.) Lose a little weight, why don't you? Nothing crazy, maybe 10 lbs before summer vacation. That's 5 months, get to it. (Today was not a good start!)

4.) Stop being lazy. That one's simple.

5.) Join something. Make friends. Get involved. (This will also help with #1).

Just things that crossed my mind this morning while feeling sorry for myself.

Hope everyone had a great New Year's Day. I spent it with my family; Mark, Anna, Emma, John M., my mom, my sister, Hawkeye, John, Katie, Andrew and Jenna, and without a doubt, realized they're the ones I'll always love the most. If any of you people above are reading this, thanks for making me happy.

Froggie

(If you're wondering, that picture above is the first one I found in a folder called 'Reneesframe' that Mark apparently made to load pics onto the digital photo frame he got me for Christmas. I was too lazy to go thru all of them so I picked the first one. It's mighty cute though, don't you think? OKAY, I'll work on #4 up there. YAWN!)

It's been so long since I updated this thing, I forgot my password.

My bad. I don't know if it's just that I've been busy. Or just lazy. Or some of both.

In the meantime, my oldest child is now certifiably a teenager, having turned 13 on November 22nd. She and her friend rang in their teen-ness with a dance. It sure wasn't like I remembered from junior high. We used to stand together in little girl and boy-only packs and start to dance an hour or two into the thing. These kids got out and danced from minute one and never stopped. I kept trying to sneak peeks at who my girl was dancing with without looking like I was doing so. I never did make out who was who. They all look the same in the dark. Anna had a great time though and I think it's something she'll always remember, which is what I'd hoped it would be.

Emma's having a birthday get-together tomorrow night at the Festival of Lights Xmas event here. It's going to be freezing cold, but I guess that goes with the theme, huh? Sucks for me though.

My Christmas shopping is almost done, and I'm going to keep how much money I spent on the down-low. Just doing my part to stimulate the economy down here, right?

Our tree is up, Xmas decorations in the yard and cards on the way. I think I'm actually ahead a little this year. Maybe after Emma's party, I can sit back and relax some.

This has been one boring post, but hey, at least I got back on the wagon.

Thankful Tuesday

Yes, I still do have this blog. I'm just very neglectful lately. Work has been one busy place, and home life isn't so slow either. Can you believe my oldest will be 13 in 10 short days? Shit, how did that happen?

Thought I'd be thankful for today. I had a holiday for Veteran's Day today and had a nice day off.

Today, I'm thankful for . . .

1.) A beautiful Veteran's Day mass today at Emma's school. 'Paw-Paw' came to represent the Air Force.

2.) Having a John M. day because he was the only one home with me.

3.) Seeing Madagascar 2 with above boy.

4.) My mom for always being there for me.

5.) My sister; we definitely had ups and downs and now I feel like we're on an 'up'.

6.) Mark helping around the house consistently for the first time like . . . ever.

7.) Anna and Emma spending time with their little brother and liking it.

8.) Pecan season

9.) Warm afternoons

10.) Holidays!

Hope you're having a good fall.

Thoughts at 11:11pm on a Monday

1.) A little bit of Putt-Putt never hurt nothin'.

2.) I need to go to sleep or I'll never get up at the butt-crack of dawn for work.

3.) I really should go and blow-dry my hair or my new short 'do is gonna look really Maw-Maw in the morning.

4.) Dee-Dee, can you stop the howling? I mean, really.

5.) What am I going to get everyone for Christmas?

6.) Should I go in the pantry and scout something out for a midnight snack?

7.) I wonder why I can't lose any weight...

8.) This 'office' (read: room full of junk) looks a lot better in the pitch dark.

9.) How'd it get to be almost November already?

10.) I need to go buy that Kenny Chesney CD ...

Good night.

A Sunday Morning With John M.

Grateful Friday

1.) Carousels (and 'little' girls who are not too big for them yet).

2.) Friday night high-school football games with my family.

3.) Playing the Wii with my boy.

4.) Small town life.

5.) Bananas for breakfast.

6.) Cheaper electricity bills!

That last way may just be due to the fact that we were without power for a quarter of the month, but I'm going to take what I can get.
We're having great cooler weather down here. It's been really nice. Anyone wanna come down and visit?

Four!

My baby is four years old today.
In celebration, here's a list of four reasons why I love John M. being 4:

1.) John, you love to prove to me that you're a big kid and can do things. Example: "Mom, I'm big so I can sweep that up for you!". Go for it, boy!

2.) You're starting to learn all of your letters and love to spell things for
me, although you always do it from right to left. When you see a stop sign, you
say 'P-O-T-S' and I say right, 'Pots!'. We'll clear that up one day.

3.) You're big enough to want to pour your own drink, but not yet too big for
me to scoop you up and hug you for a good long while.

4.) You make me things now; cards, signs, all sorts of artwork and I want to
keep all of it to remind me of how perfectly sweet you are at this age.

I was planning on doing a list of four reasons why four is probably going to
be a pain in the butt, but let's just end it on a positive note, why don't we?

I love you, my boy, for four million reasons.

Love,

Mom (even from right to left, it's still me)

Not the Diary I want it to be

This blogging thing lately has not been what I set out for it to be. It's supposed to be a diary of sorts, something for my children to read one day and remember what we were doing at any given point and time. I haven't been doing that. Everything gets in the way.

As I sat here and finally downloaded the pictures from the past month or so from my camera, I realized all that I've been missing out on 'writing in my diary'. And telling my kids in the future. And telling YOU.

For starters, we did a semi-remodel of our house over the summer. We had all of the rooms painted, enclosed our garage to make a family room, added a carport on the back of the house and replaced all of our carpet with wood floors. I took some pictures. Here's a couple. I really love the way it turned out; it's pretty boring now because most of the pictures aren't hung on the walls, so there's much bareness.
Is that a word? Oh yeah, and while we were on vacation in June, Mark built John M. a loft over his bed. Yep, he just threw this together one week. I knew there was a reason I married that man!

We took the kids fishing before the hurricanes set in. We caught the most fish I've ever caught on a fishing trip. Not saying much, but hey. All in all, I think there were over 30 of them. Guess who caught the biggest?

Anna's cheering is in full swing. It's definitely keeping us all busy, but when I see her out there doing her thing, I love it. She has a smile that can't be beat. I may not see it enough in these 'tween' years, but when I do, it melts my heart.


Emma got her ears pierced 3 weeks ago, something that's she's been deathly afraid of doing for years. She was very nervous, but after the first 'gunshot', she looked at all of us like, 'So, what was the big deal?'. She's anxiously awaiting the day when she can wear a new pair of earrings.


I'm going to try and keep this posting up more frequently. Please help me to keep it going! If you're on Facebook, write on my wall and give me a nudge in the right direction. Or just email me and tell me to get it in gear.

Whew, now I feel better!

Post-Gustav Musings

Hurricane Gustav has come and gone and hopefully Ike will stay away. I think the last hurricane that affected me personally this much was Andrew back when I was fresh out of college and living in Baton Rouge. Katrina and Rita were huge for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but not horrible for me.

Gustav made sure we would never forget him. It sounded like the wind was going to blow the house down, John M's swingset collapsed, my mom's pool looked like a swamp and our yards looked like doomsday had struck. It took A LOT of cleanup and it was baking hot, we were without power for 8 days, and groceries were hard to come by. Oh yeah, and Mark's barn blew away. In the end, our house had no major damage and everyone was safe.

The funny thing is, most of our time after the storm (we were off of work for a week) was good. Why? I'll make a short list.

1.) We spent it together, with my mom, and my sister and her family. The kids played in the puddles, made lots of play dough art, and laughed a lot.

2.) We got back to basics. I cooked 3 meals a day (well, for a while, until McDonald's reopened!) We hung clothes out on the line to dry. I think I'm gonna leave my clothesline up; I found that I loved having one.

3.) The storm brought a little cool weather for a couple of days. There was a nice breeze blowing off the lake and for 2 nights, we slept with the windows open and had to cover up with 2 blankets. Amazing, when the usual September weather is in the 90s.

4.) When things started to get back to normal we appreciated things we usually take for granted. Mostly air conditioning!

Now, let's all cross our fingers that Gustav's friends leave us alone and I can use my clothesline because I want to, not out of necessity. I'm off to buy some clothespins . . .

Stormy

Gustav is on his way.

Thank goodness for Mark otherwise I'd be totally unprepared. I'm more the 'It's not gonna be that bad' type. We're pretty far inland so we usually get some wind and rain, but nothing really bad. That's the way to jinx us, huh? Knocking on my head right now.

I'm also Mrs. Last Minute and went to the store in my hometown today at 1:00, only to find that had closed up shop at 12:00. You snooze, you lose.

We do have a few batteries, a couple of working flashlights, a generator, and lots of junk food. Isn't that all you need?

I'll check in after Gustav leaves town.

Oh, and the book giveaway. The lucky winner is Cheryl! And it's her birthday weekend too! Cheryl, send your mailing address to me (frogola69@yahoo.com) and the book will be coming your way.

Want to win a book?

Do you like getting free stuff? Is the sky blue? Are you watching Olympic swimming competitions just to check out the guys’ hot bodies? Okay, so ‘yes’.

I’m joining in a little game started by Kia at ‘Good Enough Mama’. She had a children’s book giveaway, and I won a free book. Go me. So, now it’s up to me to ‘pay it forward’ and give a book of my own (or of John M’s own). Poor child doesn’t even know I’m raiding his bookshelf.

I’ve chosen the book, ‘Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale’. Sorry, I couldn’t part with the original ‘Rainbow Fish’ because it’s one of my favorites (oh yeah, I mean one of John M.’s favorites). I think ‘Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale’ is the third in the series and its lesson is one of seeing past physical differences and acceptance. It’s a sweet story and has beautiful artwork. And did I mention, it’s FREE!

If you would like to win it, for your kid (or yourself), you need to leave a comment. It doesn’t have to be about why you want the book, just any old comment will do. ‘I love cheese’, etc.

On Sunday August 31st, I will put all of the entrants’ names in a bowl and have John M. choose the winner.

If you’re the winner, you get the book and you get to ‘pay it forward’ with a book giveaway of your own. And maybe I’ll win yours and we can start this whole process again. Won’t that be fun?

Bits of Thanks

I notice these days I offer lots of short prayers, recognizing small things I’m thankful for during the day.

My mini-prayers usually go something like this ‘Thank you Lord for (fill in the blank here) being able to pick
Anna up from cheerleading’. Or ‘Thank you God for letting me find that (fill in the blank here) I was looking
for.’

I feel silly for doing it sometimes, but I figure a small prayer to recognize something good is better than no prayer at all. For someone who rarely makes it to church for one reason or another, it’s a step in the right direction.

I wonder, does anyone else do this? Let me know.

(The teachers at John’s school take pictures during the week and post them. He tends to look a little worried in each one.)

7th, 5th, Pre-School

Regrets

Any month, Any day, 2003

Dear Renee,

I know the girls make you crazy sometimes, fighting, arguing, not leaving your side for more than a couple of minutes at a time, whining, saying 'Mamaaaa' until you want to scream.

I know that sometimes it just seems like one more chore to go next door and visit with your grandparents and find out what's going on with their lives.

It's just a little too easy to walk across the yard and go and hang out with your mom and dad. You take it for granted every single day of your life.

But, one day all too soon, in just a few short years, so much of it will be taken away from you. So many of the people who formed who you are today will be gone. So will the innocence of your little girls; them needing you and wanting to spend every second with you. Don't take it for granted.

One day, very soon you'll want it all back so badly, it'll hurt your heart to think of how it used to be.

John's Wish

You know that big, blue octopus? Oswald.
We were watching that last night; Oswald had a wish coming to him so he was consulting all of his animal friends on what his wish should be and what they
would wish for.

John M. looks at me with this 'duh' expression on his face and says 'Well, I'd
wish for a big, big, big slip and slide that went all the way to the sky'. He
seemed to be thinking 'Why does Oswald even have to think about it? Doesn't
everyone want one of those?!'.

Vacation.Over.Big Frown

We made it back from San Antonio a few days ago. So, my first vacation without Mark, and with all 3 kids went better than expected. Except for long, hyper John-nights in the hotel room. He left with a skinned up knee, busted lip, and a foot bo-bo also. Boys, huh?

The girls loved the virgin daiquiris by the pool and all of the kids loved the S'mores on the fire pits at the hotel.

I'm ready to go back again. Is that wrong?

Flying Solo

We're leaving for vacation Saturday. This is the first vacation where I've taken all of the kids without Mark. He has no earned vacation time at his new job, so it's just me and the kids. We're not going far, but I'm still a little nervous about it. Mostly, the drive and locating things. Directions are not my thing. In fact, I have absolutely NO sense of direction. Thank God for our trusty little GPS Magellan. I'm hoping he helps me out.

So, wish us luck.

Hopefully, we'll party like this cat up top!