I Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program....

....to bring you something different than I normally post. I try to keep this blog very light and happy, and tend to avoid posts that are too personal in nature. I struggle with that sometimes b/c I want this to be a record/scrapbook for our family. However, I'm not up for airing to much info. I don't mind when it only concerns me, but when others are involved, I think twice. With that said, I feel the need to write about a recent happening...

Two weeks ago, the day after I wrote this, my Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. It came as a surprise b/c after discovering a mass in her lung, we were told it was pneumonia. The doctor ordered a few more tests just be sure, and the tests confirmed cancer. Yuck. She had surgery on Monday to remove the mass and to investigate further. After 3.5 hours of surgery, the doctor was confident he had gotten it all and that it has not spread. The cancer is stage 1B, which is very good news. She is recovering wonderfully, and has been a trooper dealing with the pain. Follow up chemo is questionable at this time.

I don't want to say too much and definitely want to respect her privacy. I just wanted to write all this to first say that our friends and family are amazing. My mom has wonderful friends, neighbors, and church members that have checked on her, and taken care of her, faithfully. I am so thankful since I can't be there continuously. Also my friends have been so good to me. Thank you all for the prayers, cards, gifts, visits, calls, texts, food and even visits to my Mom. You all are so good to me. This is the same feeling I had after my five, yes five, baby showers. Unspeakable gratitude. My heart is full.

Second, and most important....God is good. He is faithful to His children. He cares about every detail in our lives....from putting my dog to sleep....to pink eye....to my Mom having cancer....E-V-E-R-Y detail. He hears every word we speak and knows every thought we think. He cares for us. "When I am afraid, I will trust in You." ~Psalm 56:3~

Let us please talk about this picture. My mom does not like to have her picture taken. When I searched for a picture of just the two of us, I could only find two....this one and one at my college graduation when I graduated with my Masters. So, it was either a picture with a ridiculous graduation hat, or one where I am 8 months pregnant. Not sure why I thought eight months pregnant was the lesser of two evils, but it was. So Mom....I have news for you....when you get all better, there will be lots more pictures. Say cheese! I love you, Mom.

Bubble Bath

Can there be too many bath pictures?

Bike Ride

The latest plan to lose weight in our family is bike riding. It's actually a proven method for us. Several summers ago we both lost a lot of weight by bike riding. Sounds like a perfect idea b/c we can take the little man with us. I thought he would love it. I envisioned smiles, laughing, talking, feet kicking.....

Instead his expression never changed from this...

And this...

Of course it could have been the ridiculous heat index.

When we rode a couple years back, we would ride for 45min to an hour. We went all over town. Today....I was such a wimp. We made it to the park, which is 5 minutes away and I was screaming mercy. I trailed a good 50 yards behind Darrin the whole time, which wasn't fun. The idea was to be together but I couldn't keep up.

So, we are going to try again. I'm completely out of shape. Maybe a few more trips and I'll be able to do a little better. Maybe Miles will enjoy it more next time. I think he was just trying to figure things out.

Better Late Than Never

Darrin's Father's Day gift didn't arrive in time for Father's Day. So, it was waiting for him when he got home from his trip. When I showed it to Miles for the first time he laughed out loud.

He was very excited to give it to Daddy....

Happy, Happier, Happiest

Darrin has been gone 10 of the last 12 days. When I blogged about having a bad week, he was also out of town which made everything that much worse. It's safe to assume when my posts are slacking that he is out of town. By the time I get home and get everything done that needs to be done, blogging is the farthest thing from my mind. Actually that's not true. I think about posting something, and I want to, but I'm usually just too tired.

He got home yesterday afternoon. Miles was happy.

There was lots of playing....

Darrin was even happier than Miles. It's been hard on him to be away from him. He requested lots of pics and videos while he was gone.

I was definitely the happiest of all. This week was much better than last b/c Miles didn't get sick. We stayed on a pretty good routine. He also slept through the night all by one night. Even still, I am so glad to have Darrin home. It's been a long recruiting season...which I'm very happy to say is O-V-E-R. He will be in town until season starts in late August. Yeah!

I've Moved

A couple of weeks ago my office moved from Union City to Martin. Our corporate offices are still located in Union City. However, the company was running out of space at our three offices in Union City so they decided to relocate the Marketing department to Martin. My department was the only one that got to move....lucky for me. Our offices are really nice, and it takes me 5 minutes to get to work. I love going home for lunch too.

Here's the new office...I'm on the second floor.

This pic was taken at our Grand Opening. The cat is our Kitty Cash Savings mascot.

Miles was completely unfazed by the hairy creature beside him. He had just woken up from a nap so that probably helped. He was still a little out of it.

Miles' Little Friend

I wish I had a picture to go with this story.... This is one of those stories I have to write about just so I'll remember it. Today when I dropped Miles off at daycare, I put him in the floor while I signed in. There were two other babies already there, Alex and Molly. Miles immediately crawled over to Alex, sat right next to him, and laid his head on Alex's shoulder. Then, Alex wrapped both his arms around Miles neck and gave him a big hug. It was as if they missed each other over the weekend. So precious.

Father's Day

We had a very low key Father's Day. Darrin had to work some and I have a cold (compliments of the little man)....but we made the most of it. The day started off with a little snuggling in bed with Dad....

Then we went to the Hearth for breakfast....

And, that concludes the day. We went to lunch in Paducah with Darrin's Dad, Mom, and sister on Saturday b/c we knew we wouldn't have much time together on Sunday. We even skipped out on church. It sounds like we had a very uneventful day, but I think Daddy knows how much we love him. He's the best husband and Dad we could have ever asked for. He knows how to make us feel loved, and I thank God that He picked him just for our family. Love you babe.

Like Father, Like Son

Miles has a new love....cheese. We've been trying random table foods for over a month. Besides Cheerios and yogurt melts, he's not much of a fan. Today I tried some cheddar cheese cubes. He tore them up.

I say "Like Father, Like Son" b/c Darrin hearts cheese big time. I frequently get text messages from him that say "I love you more than cheese", which I know is saying something.

Vacation Can't Come Soon Enough

Last week....

I had pink eye in both eyes.

We put Bobo to sleep.

I lost a diamond earring that Darrin gave me for our first Christmas (luckily it was later found).

We had to remove everything from every cabinet, drawer and closet so our house could be sprayed. This was prompted by an inspection for ants, which lead to the discovery of brown recluse spiders.....obviously unacceptable with a 9 month old.

At work, we had four days of grand opening events for our new Martin office....strange hours and lots of hard work.

The week was hectic, sad, stressful....After a restful weekend, I was looking forward to a better week. So far this week...

Miles got sick on Sunday. I ended up taking him to the doctor yesterday. We got an antibiotic for an ear infection and breathing treatments for his chest congestion. She said his chest wasn't that bad, but that the treatments would help. He was able to go back to daycare today, after missing two days.

I've cleaned endless amounts of poop b/c the meds mess his stomach up. For extra fun, his diapers keep leaking.

I've had terrible headaches which are no doubt from the stress of this week and last.

Sorry for the whining but I seriously am about to go crazy. We leave for vacation in 2 weeks. THANK GOODNESS.

Party Time

Miles went to a birthday party for the first time today. His friend, Aiden, turned one.

"Do I have to give this wooden puzzle to Aiden? I really like wooden puzzles"...

Boo

I was in our office tonight and could hear Miles crawling through the kitchen to get to me. I got in the floor and decided to surprise him by being on his level. When he saw me he literally screamed b/c he was scared, and then starting crying. I picked him up and tried to console him but his little heart was racing and he couldn't stop crying. I finally gave him to Darrin and he settled down. I certainly didn't mean to scare him. I guess it didn't help that the office light was off and I had my glasses on (due to pink eye in both eyes...ugh) which he isn't used to. Poor guy.

I despise being scared. When Darrin and I were dating he thought it would be funny to scare me. He learned quickly that was not the way to my heart. I guess Miles is the same way.

This One

We will do anything for this one.....as proven yesterday.

Yesterday, we had to put Bobo to sleep. It was incredibly sad. I haven't blogged about it b/c I was hoping the situation would work itself out....but it didn't. Bobo was fine with Miles when he was first born b/c he didn't move or make noise. Since he has become active, Bobo has been very aggressive towards him. He went after him several times....never breaking the skin, but grazing it. We tried anxiety medicine (doggy Prozac) to no avail.

We chose to put him to sleep verses giving him to someone for two reasons. First, he was a very difficult dog to take care of. He wore a diaper and required special food that was very expensive. Those two factors, combined with the fact that he was 10 years old and not good with kids didn't make him a good fit for many people. We took care of him for ten years b/c we loved him. I just didn't think that someone else would be as willing. I was afraid that they would adopt him and then get rid of him when they realized how high maintenance he was. Second, and only dog/animal lovers will understand this, I couldn't stand the thought of him missing us. The vet agreed that we were making the right decision but it was gut wrenching. I cried my eyes out, and am about to as I type this.

Bobo was actually Darrin's dog before we started dating. Darrin was moving into an apartment and couldn't have a dog so he gave him to me. Then we started dating and the rest is history. Bobo was very special to us. Yesterday, I just kept thinking about Miles and repeating that I could/would do anything for him. Always will, no matter how hard it is.

More Fun in the Sun

It's been a busy weekend for us....my office moved from our corporate office in Union City to our new office in Martin on Friday (worn out from the move, but excited to have a 5 minute commute)...yard sale, hair appointment and LONG nap with Miles on Saturday (made quite a bit of $ in sale & went a little darker with the hair which so far has made me happy)....church, work, church today.....and a little play time with Miles this afternoon. The busy weekend has left me with little energy to devote to blogging. Hence the long, run on sentence to narrate my entire weekend.

I've had several people ask me where I got this little water toy for Miles. I actually got it from Big Lots for $35. He played in it again today and loved it. Warning: When it really gets to going, the water is all over the place. See below.


Every now and then we turn it off and let him catch his breath. It's still fun to play in without the water going. It leaves enough water in the bottom to splash around in.

Hairdo- compliments of Daddy....

Trying to drink the water.....

Does This Hat Make My Head Look Big?

I still get comments that his head is big.....and, it's true that it was in the 90th percentile at his 9 month check up....but I still don't see it. Simply perfect to me.

Privacy Please?

This was my view as I took a shower the other day....

Rewind

This post is out of order. My OCD nature compels me to offer an explanation. I forgot my camera on Saturday, and wasn't able to get pics from Crystal until Monday. That is the reason for the Saturday and Monday pics in this post, and pics from Sunday were 2 posts ago.

On Saturday, Miles & I spent the day at Darrin's parent's house. Darrin was out of town all weekend. It was a beautiful day...sunny...hot...but a breeze off and on throughout the day. We spent almost all day sitting outside. I was excited about Miles getting in the kiddie pool as this is a first.

Here is Crystal trying to get him in the float. Please note how difficult this proved to be, and it wasn't b/c Miles was wiggling.

Olivia steps in to help...

Then Ava...

Finally he's in. Not a good first reaction...

Not happy. At this point I was still trying to coax him into enjoying it. When I stepped in the pool to get him out it, the water was FREEZING. I felt so bad for trying to wait him out.

He wasn't the only one shedding some tears. Ava wanted someone, anyone, to get in with her. Olivia was in there, but that wasn't enough. I finally got in and walked around. She was happy with that.

Sunday Miles and I spent the day by ourselves. It was a fun day. Monday, Crystal and the girls came down. We played outside all day.

Olivia getting used to the water...

Miles didn't feel great on Monday so he only played in the water for a little while. Love that belly...I think he looks like an old man, especially with his hair combed over.

It was a great weekend. Darrin was missed, but that's the way it goes. I'm trying to learn to make the best of it when he's gone.