January - February 2011

The weeks since Christmas have been busy for us. Ainsley got a new "big girl bed" the next week. She has done great with it and made the transition like a champ!  Later that week my friend Cynthia, who is a realtor, called and asked if we wanted to show our house to a lady who was looking for a house about the size of ours and liked our neighborhood. We had just taken Christmas stuff down and our house looked like a bomb had exploded. For the next week we cleaned out every possible space and finished a few house projects. We showed the house twice and it didn't work out, but it did light a fire under us to start getting the house as ready as it can be to sell when the time comes.

A couple of weeks into January we had Christmas with the Greens when Guy, Julie and Shepherd were able to come down. Shepherd had just started taking some steps and he took several great ones in front of Guy and myself in the dining room right off the bat. My kids were so excited about opening presents again, they could hardly wait. Ainsley kept trying to rip into hers before everyone else's piles had been distributed.

Shepherd got a slide from G.G. and all the kids loved it. Shepherd got pretty upset- I don't know if it was because he had to get off or because Will and Ainsley were getting on it - but he was not happy unless he was on the slide!

After opening gifts, the kids played on the piano. Will and Ainsley stood on the bench and sang some of the songs from Will's class Christmas play. They also recited the scripture from Luke 2: 8-11 that he learned for the play. In true sibling fashion, the evening was not complete with out a few tears.

We also celebrated Guy's birthday that weekend as well. The rest of our weekend was spent visiting, eating, and getting in some good play time!

Later in January we took Will to the Dental Clinic at ACH where he did a fantastic job (despite a very noisy environment) and let the hygienist clean his teeth for the first time!! We also saw the Neurosurgeon who confirmed that he has atlanto-axial instability (AAI) and cervical stenosis. More x-rays in 6 months to make sure it's not getting worse.

I played Fannie Floss in the Dental Health Play for county kindergartners with Service League.

We had the infamous church directory picture debacle - after spending a (beautiful, I might add) Saturday morning getting everybody dressed, we got to the church to find it empty. We found out later that the Saturday pictures had been cancelled and we were supposed to have been notified, but we were not. We spent probably another hour trying to get a good one from our camera. The whole experience was a nightmare, but Mitch's mom did manage to get this decent picture outside in their back yard.

We had some winter weather in January and February, although not nearly as much as other parts of the state and country. It was fun getting a little though. El Dorado Public Schools missed 5 days this year, which is unheard of! The kids had fun having snowball fights and helping Daddy build this little snowman.

We celebrated Mitch's birthday on the 10th with a meal and a "yellow cake with chocolate icing" from Grammy. For his birthday, I got us tickets to see Travis Tritt, who is coming to El Dorado at the end of the month.

Mitch and I took a tour of the school we want Will to go to next year. It is hard to believe that I will register him for kindergarten next week and that I turned in Ainsley's registration papers for pre-school this week. Lots of changes for us are coming in about 6 months . . . not sure if I'm ready! Almost 3 weeks ago, miracle of miracles, Will started eating!!! It is not always willingly, but he has started eating more new foods, eating a larger amount, and is finding that he likes some things. He has recently eaten carrots, black eyed peas, green beans, potatoes (he's never eaten veggies before), hamburger patty, grilled cheese sandwich, blueberry muffin - even a sugar cookie on Valentine's Day! Mitch has to direct him and get firm with him at times, but he is eating so much better than he was a month ago. It gives us a little glimmer of hope!

About 3 weeks ago, I found out that one of my best friends from OBU, Holly, has stage 4 cancer in her liver, colon and lymph nodes. Holly was the originator of the term "Woolette" (a Woolette is similar to a redneck) - which is what our SLP professors called our foursome of friends - me, Holly, Shanda and Sherri. Mitch and I use that term all the time now! Holly was having what she thought was gallbladder issues and put off going to the doctor for awhile. When she did go, the ultrasound of her gallbladder led to further testing which led to the cancer diagnosis. She lives in Texarkana with her husband Paul and 2 small children and a step-daughter. The met with doctors at MD Anderson last Friday who told her that her liver was inoperable and that she needed a miracle. She had 3 days of chemo this week. When she found out about her diagnosis, they asked people to pray for a miracle, and now there are literally people all over the country praying for just that!