definitely summer

I think it's only in the mid-50s this morning as I write this, so it seems funny to look at these pictures and be writing about summer.  But that's Missouri for you.

popsicles and sprinklers

{the staples of summertime around here}

Early morning strawberry picking with Erin and her girls.

None of my guys wanted to go.

At first I was a little disappointed.

Then I realized how nice it was to have some very rare girl time.

Ushering in summer with pizza and ice cream on the last day of school

I finally have a Magnolia bloom!

I've wanted a magnolia tree forever.

Funny that I had to move to Missouri to get one.

It lost most of its leaves last year, and I feared for its life.

But some TLC has brought it back to life, and it has actually bloomed 3 times!!

{water balloons}

It was extremely hot this day.

This was even around 5 and hot even in the shade (which is where I stayed).

They loved every minute of it.

Maybe I'll play next time too. 

Maybe.

fish

This is pretty much what we (or at least the boys) did all weekend last weekend.  I'm surprised they haven't grown scales yet.  

They couldn't stand it that our pool was open Saturday and we weren't going.  We finally decided to go early evening.  It was perfect.  I found a spot in the shade, and they swam, jumped, flipped, etc. all they wanted.

Then a friend asked us to spend the afternoon at their pool Sunday.  It was awesome.  Had such a great time together - thanks guys!

And then we spent Memorial Day at another friend's house, who also had a pool.  Another great time!  

I'm really surprised that we haven't been hit with the "we want a pool" syndrome :)

catching up ~ 5.7.2012

Yes, it's been a while.

Sometimes we get really busy and blogging is last on the list.

Sometimes I just don't feel like writing.

This time was a combination of the two.

But we're back.

And here's what we've been up to the past month or so....

The boys finished the Read, Right & Run Marathon, just not in the way they expected to.

It was storming the day of the race, so it was cancelled and their PE teacher let them all finish the last mile one afternoon at school.  She even went downtown to get their medals and presented them at an assembly later that week.  

I went with Ethan's class on his field trip to the bowling alley to aid their study of force and motion.

It was a fun time - those kids, moms and teachers are awesome.

This is the only picture he let me get of him.  He kept turning around every time he would see me with the camera.

Baseball has started!

Ethan is playing with his team from last year

THE TIGERS

Elliott is playing for the first time this year.

His team is 

THE REDBIRDS

(Look how excited he was that I was taking a picture)

A miracle has happened, and Brian has been able to get home in time to take Ethan to baseball practice each week, so that means Elliott and I have some time together.  He asked me last week to help him build a Lego robot.  It ended up being a rock star robot.  He wanted me to work on the robot's face, so I did my best, and he was actually impressed with my handiwork!  He did change out the hair color.  I liked orange, but he thought it look unrealistic :)  It was fun having time to ourselves.

 And speaking of time to ourselves,

Brian and I finally got to ride part of the Katy Trail.

He had some vacation time the past couple of weeks, and some of those days have

been really nice out, so we took advantage of them and got

out and rode 23 miles!!

It sounds like a lot, but it really didn't feel like it until we were almost done.

Such a fun fun day....I think I will try to take the kids this summer too.

 The newest member of the family:

Bright Blue

Elliott saved up his money and learned all about taking care of a fish from

researching on the internet and talking to the employees at Petco.   I was really very

impressed with how much of an interest he took in doing everything the right way and caring for the fish correctly.  He's shown a lot of responsibility with this!

 And sprinklers and popsicles have been the hot items this week.  It's been almost 90 if not over, for a few days.  And I think each day involved the boys being completely soaked, going from yard to yard running through the sprinklers with their friends, and eating popsicles (none of which were from our house, so I owe our neighbors a few rounds of popsicles this week).

Yep, summer is definitely here!

awesome surprise

So Friday night I get a text from this girl:

who says that she's coming to whisk me away for the day on Saturday and to be ready to go by 7:45 AM....... and dress appropriately for eating out.  

I say I can't go, the boys have the Read, Right & Run Marathon that morning.  

She says Brian is taking them. 

 I'm pretty stern to Brian about the fact that I really wanted to go see the boys run the last mile of their marathon.  

He tells me that I pretty much don't have a choice and reluctantly lets me know that there are several people involved and it's really not something I want to miss 

(and that he's jealous of the place we're eating and that that's all he's going to say about it).

Hmmm.......Okay.  My mind churned most of the night - I didn't sleep well.  I couldn't figure out why I had to be dressed to go out to eat at 7:45 in the morning.  So early!

But, sure enough, around 7:45, this group of wonderful women surprised me at our front door...

in the "big white bus" as we affectionately called it the rest of the day.

Super glad to see them, but still wondering what was going on.

We did a little repair job on Mom's glasses after a minor mishap with the seat in the big white bus 

(note for the future:  getting instructions from the rental place on how to work the seats is always a good idea - especially if it's pouring down rain when trying to fix said seats so that persons can actually sit in them),

and then we rode around much of West County.....

with Amber at the wheel.....

and much more whispering than I was comfortable with :).....

until we arrived here in South County 

(I think.  Maybe Southwest?  Too much turning around.  Totally confused by this point)

So, as you can see for yourself in this picture, my great deductive reasoning skills clued me in to the fact that we had arrived at a huge event at a church....

for lots and lots of mostly women....

who were willing to stand outside in the rain to wait for the event to start.  Hmmmm.....

About an hour later we were enjoying this scene....

 Laura Story.

Wonderful, sweet girl.

Loved worshiping with her.

You may remember, from many months ago, me talking about her song, "Blessings".

It was very much a part of our cancer journey, and I was so excited to hear her sing it live!

And then this cute girl....

 Britt Nicole.

Again so sweet and such fun songs.

Love that she is a great role model for all the little girls out there.

And then this lovely lady....

Mandisa.

I don't know if I ever wrote about this last year, because of the timing, but Amber and I went to see her at Hoffman Estates last May.  She is so entertaining, has a beautiful voice, is a beautiful girl inside and out, and shares her heart so freely about the struggles that she has endured.  I left that concert a fan, but had no idea that just a week or so later we would be living our biggest struggle yet, and would be remembering that night as God's way of preparing me for what was ahead with her songs of inspiration and her stories of God's healing and deliverance to also give me hope in my situation.  We had wavered about going to the concert that night.  We knew it was a long drive home that night, and we thought we would just see how our time went.  Well, we had plenty of time, of course, went to the concert and loved every minute of it!  I am in constant amazement at how God orchestrates his plan for us.  How things come together at just the right time and just the right place.  I'm incredibly thankful that every once in a while he allows us to see how a tiny part of that plan is coming together - like this concert right before my diagnosis.  

No coincidence.  

Entirely His plan.

Her song "Stronger" has been my ringtone since being diagnosed.  It has been a constant presence in our journey.  So when she sang it at the very end of the concert I pretty much bawled like a baby.  It wasn't pretty.  And then I pretty much made everyone else cry too - no sense having red puffy eyes all alone, right?  I know they were all thanking me for that.  Anytime, girls, anytime.

Here we are at intermission.  I knew the concert had been sold out for weeks - actually I think it sold out within an hour.  But I just thought that Amber had heard about it when she was here one time and had been able to get tickets before they sold out.  Nope.  Mandisa's tour manager contacted her a few weeks ago saying that they wanted to give us tickets so that we could go to the concert!  Amber had contacted them a while back, telling them our story and the role Mandisa and her music had played in it, and they were so kind and generous to secure tickets for us!  Seriously they are the nicest people!  So Amber told me all of this at intermission.  I was really trying hard to process everything, but it all seemed kind of like a blur....all the surprises - my mind couldn't handle it.

THEN!!!!  The concert is over and all the girls are just sitting around.  Okay, I guess they just want to wait out the crowd.  They finally start moving toward a door, but it's on the opposite side of where we came in, but they don't seem to listen to me.  Then Vicki and Amber are almost at a run to get to the other door.  I'm so confused.  First they didn't want to leave.  Now they can't wait to get to the door, leaving us in the dust.  Then Amber pulls something out of the ticket envelope and shows it to the girl at the door.  And something magical happens......she lets us backstage!!!!

We got to meet Mandisa!!

How beautiful is she?? 

Mandisa's tour manager had arranged for us to come to a Meet and Greet so that I could personally tell Mandisa our story and thank her for sharing hers.

Although, I don't feel like I quite had it together to really say all the words that I really wanted her to hear from me.  Don't you hate when you know you have one and only one chance to do something and you really want to do it right and make it count, and that in itself makes you so nervous that you can't do it the way you want?  Is it just me?  Argh!!

I loved every minute of it, though - even when I stumbled all over my words :)

I hope she understood how grateful I was to her and what her music has meant to me this past year.

After we chatted a few minutes, she asked if I had one of her Stonger bracelets.  I said no (thinking in that split second, "why didn't I get the bracelet when Nyla and Vicki and Amber tried to get me to get one but I got a t-shirt instead?").

She said I had to have one and pulled one right off of her wrist.  Then she wrote a scripture on it (1Peter 5:10) and gave it to me.  Really?  Such a sweet sweet girl!

 And I was so excited that we got to meet Laura Story, also!!

She is expecting her first child, so she and Erin were talking baby stuff here.

I have no idea why I'm pulling on the bottom of my shirt or why I have that goofy look, but I was getting to tell her about how my friend, Lori, was friends with one of her friends, and Lori had actually gotten a CD signed by her for me last year after I had talked about how much I liked "Blessings" and how much I was relating to it.

She was so sweet to share on stage some of the struggles that she and her husband have been facing.  He was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few years ago, if I remember correctly.  "Blessings" came out of that journey.  Loved talking to her about that.   Such a fun, sweet, tender-hearted girl - wish her all the best with the rest of her pregnancy and her venture into parenthood!

  I hate that we didn't get a picture, but we also got to meet the tour manager that set this all up for us - great guy!  So glad we were able to meet him and thank him in person.

We did actually finally leave - although I could have stayed and talked for hours!

I loved listening to how God had worked in their lives.

So thankful again for their willingness to share their stories, their heartaches, and their blessings.

And the big white bus took us here:

The Melting Pot.

I love the Melting Pot.

Actually I love the cheese and the chocolate.

I had so much fun - hope the other girls did too.

I was stuffed and exhausted that night.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful memories!

Thank you for whisking me away ladies and making the day so special - love you!!

Florida Trip - Part 9 {The End}

We headed north on Saturday morning.  Sad to leave our family and friends in FL, but excited to see the Martins in GA that night.  We got to McDonough just in time to see the last period of Luke's hockey game.  So fun!  I was so excited that we made it.  We live so far away that we don't get to do everyday things like that with them anymore.

I love that we just pick up wherever we left off, like no time has passed.  I'm tearing up just thinking about that.  Hate that moving up here meant moving so far away.  Miss them so much. 

We headed out early Sunday morning - had a LOT of driving ahead of us.  My one request was that we stop at Publix.  

I wanted Publix donuts.

I wanted Publix chocolate milk.

I wanted Publix sweet tea.

And it was good.

The boys decided to put Ethan's Lego Fire Station together about the time we got to Chattanooga.  I thought it was a very bad idea.  I envisioned tiny pieces being lost, tears to follow that, and arguing.  But I was very wrong.  It kept them occupied almost all the way home, and they did not lose a single piece!  They were really great travelers during this trip!!

And so ended our vacation.

Came home to chips in our siding, screens broken, roof damaged, broken shutters, etc. due to a hail storm we had the night before we left.  Back to reality, right?

Florida Trip - Part 8 {Cocoa Beach}

Yes, we went to the beach twice during our week!  

The boys LOVE the ocean.  

Well, I should say they LOVE the waves, actually.  

Riding the waves on the boogie board. 

Building sandcastles.

Feeding the birds.

I love the fresh air.

 Warm breezes.

The sun on my face.

Sand in my toes.

Sounds of seagulls above and waves crashing before me.

Great conversations with my sister-in-law.

Florida Trip - Part 7 {Family Fun}

We were able to spend some time with Brian's family toward the end of the week.  The boys don't see them very often, so it was great seeing them all having a fun time!

I wish that I had captured some shots of the adults, too.  I started to, but then dessert came out so I put the camera away and didn't think to get it back out until the night was over.

And I didn't get pictures of our evening with our friends, Paul, Jenni & Bob, either.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Such a fun time catching up with them!!