It must be great to be 8!

Before you can read this, I have a message from me, the terrible delinquent mother. I try my best to keep this blog up-to-date, and post things as quickly as they happen. But life gets in the way sometimes, and makes that impossible. So know this - I wrote this post a week ago, but due to technical difficulties, memory lapses, fried chickens on I-85, and just an all around lack of enough time in the day, I am finally posting Colin's birthday. Please forgive me for my delinquency, as I dislike tardiness as much as anyone. But I am only one mom, and without me, we wouldn't even have a blog. So I do my best.

And now, the long-awaited post:


My seond born child, my first son, my BOY, turned eight years old on Saturday, June 20th.

How is that possible?

Something must be wrong, because it seems like just yesterday they were laying all 9 pounds of him in my arms after my early morning c-section. I remember thinking he looked a little weird, but probably because they had made me take out my contacts, and I didn't have glasses to wear, and he had that goopy stuff in his eyes.

But I will never forget the overwhelming feeling of responsibility I felt for that boy. I had a son. He would some day be a Man. What did I know about turning boys into Men? The task ahead of me seemed daunting. Then I looked around the room, and watched as he was passed from me, to his father, to my mother, to my father, and to my grandmother, and I knew I wasn't alone. I knew that together, we were going to help this boy grow into someone special.

And once I finally got to put my eyes back in, I could see that he was the cutest baby boy ever gifted to a mother. And he was hungry!

The next eight years seem like a blur, and now we are here, at one of his most special birthdays he will ever celebrate.

Eight years old.


Still a boy, but taking his first big step forward. Baptism.

Colin was lucky like me to be baptized on his birthday, a day he will always remember. It was a beautiful baptism, and Colin looked so grown up. It's amazing how you can put white on a kid, even one as tan as he is, and they just seem to glow.

Enjoy some family pictures for a moment:












Colin was baptized by his father. I am so grateful my children are being raised by a righteous father. Ross, Colin's favorite uncle, gave the talk on baptism, and Miriam gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They did GREAT! Thanks, guys! Addison, Madilyn and Anna Reese sang a song. And Colin got dunked good! The water was deep in the font. It was chest high water, and Donny put him all the way down in the water. I had told him to swuish Colin around a little to make sure he got good and clean, but he didn't think that sounded like a good idea.

Needless to say, my son is now accountable. Scary!

But seriously, Colin is a good boy. He is growing up a lot, and I can tell that he tries to be good and do what is right. I am proud of him for making the choice to be baptized. He is a lucky boy and has a great family and so many blessings. Not to mention, that is super good-looking! (He got that from me!) We love you Colin!

We "8" Cake

After Colin's baptism, we headed back to the house for lunch, and more importantly, birthday cake.

In keeping up with the other kids, I had to make Colin's birthday cake this year.

And, as usual, I went a little overboard. You know, I do have a hard time distinguishing when enough is enough.

So, Colin got three cakes. That's right - three! Check em out -



Can you guess that Colin is into baseball? Didn't think so, so good thing I told you.

Making cakes is a lot of work, but it is worth it. I don't think Colin will soon forget these cakes!

More pics from the party:





It was a great day, and thanks to all the family that came from out of town!

Happy birthday Colin!

And so it continues. . .

We had another doctor visit today to get Madilyn's test results from Monday.

Not sure where to start explaining all of this, so let's start with the easy stuff first.

All of her bloodwork came back normal. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Then on to the X-rays.

First he read the results from the chest X-ray - Normal

Next, the skull - Normal.

Last, the right knee - another mass on the femur bone at the knee. Not normal.

So, the pain she had been having in her knee was related to all this.

Most likely she has something called Eosinophilic Granuloma, or EG. You can read more about what that all is here. This is the same benign mass that Dr. Fabregas had thought it could be when they did the biopsy. According to Dr. Shore, the biopsy results alone cannot rule out EG, and her final culture results came back this week as well from pathology on the biopsy, and they were negative for bacterial growth, which tells us that the mass in NOT made up of an infection after all.

As soon as Dr. Shore read the X-ray results from the knee, he became like a kid on Christmas morning. In his line of work, he must get him a thrill to solve a mystery, or at least start putting pieces of the puzzle together to get to a diagnosis. He immediately went and called Dr. Fabregas to tell him about the lesion in the femur. And to say the least, it sounds like he was shocked there was another lesion.

Dr. Shore could not tell us any specifics about what the treatment will be. He said EG is an orthopedic and hemalogist specialty. He said most likely Dr. Fab will order a full skeletal X-ray to rule out any additional lesions, and depending on what they find, they will determine the treatment.

He said there is a possibility it could also be chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis and the treatment for either disease, as long as she doesn't have any additional lesions, would be very similar.

He wants her to continue taking the antibiotics until she sees Dr. Fab again.

So, again, more waiting for answers. Right now we are scheduled to see Dr. Fab next Thursday, 7/2, but with this new finding, I am going to call in the morning to see if they want to see her sooner.

How much crazier this is going to get, I am not sure. But luckily our trip to ATL and back today was much easier than Monday. Good thing, cause I wasn't in the mood for fried chicken again.

I'll keep you posted on any news. Thanks for keeping up with all this.

Love you all!

"DraMa"dilyn's Update

Notice the title - you'll understand why shortly.

Madilyn had her first doctor's visit yesterday with the Infectious disease specialist, Dr. Shore.

Two things we know for sure now.

1. Donny and I are convinced that the ER doctor, her orthopedic surgeon, and the oncologist that consulted on her case were definitely convinced Madilyn's mass was malignant prior to the biopsy. The steps they took and the aggresiveness at which they approached the situation prove that beyond a doubt. Not that they did anything wrong, better to rule out the worst case scenario first, and luckily, the doctors were wrong. No malignancy here.

2. We hate Atlanta. More on that later.

As for the visit yesterday, we are still seeking answers. I know, I know, you are probably wondering if we will ever really know what is going on. And, there is a chance we may not ever know what caused this.

According to Dr. Shore, she most likely has a disease that has caused the infection in her bone. And so now we need to pinpoint this disease so he can treat it properly to prevent this from happening again. He doubled the amount of antibiotic she is taking and said she will most likely need to be on the antibiotic for at least the next 4-6 months depending on her prognosis. He sent us across the street to Children's Hospital for lots and lots of tests. They took X-rays of her skull, chest (which will also give him a different angle to look at her clavicle bone from the original X-rays), and knee.

I haven't said anything on the blog about her knee, so if you haven't talked to me you might not know that before she started complaining about her shoulder hurting, she had been limping around on her right knee complaining about it hurting for about two weeks. I thought it was just growing pains. Then it just stopped, and literally the next day she was complaining about her shoulder. Dr. Shore thinks that sounds like too much of a coincidence for them not to be related, so that is the reason for the X-rays of the knee.

They also did lots of blood work. And, oh, the drama! You would have thought they were walking around with chainsaws cutting off children's arms to eat for dinner the way Madilyn was acting. First they put numbing cream on her arm that had to sit for 30 minutes. The closer the time got, the faster the tears fell. Then it's time to start. And oh my! She started all right. Weeping and wailing galore! She was crying and begging "Please don't do this to me" "Please, I don't want to do this" over and over. I know it sounds sad right now, but Donny and I could not help but laugh at the time. Of course while all the crying and begging was going on, the tech had started and was half way done and Madilyn had no idea. She finally settled down enough to ask me when she was going to start, and I told her she was already half-way done. Madilyn immediately stopped crying and looked down at her arm and was shocked that she hadn't felt anything. Imagine that. A Children's Hospital that DOESN'T torture innocent children. Unbelievable. I would have given my right arm to have had my camera on me. All that drama was Oscar worthy, for sure! Of course, she comes by it honestly, she is my daughter.

Just call me Drama Mama!

So what now? We have another appointment with Dr. Shore tomorrow at 3:00 to discuss the results of all the tests. My biggest concern right now is if the mass is going away, and if her bone will ever return to normal. Questions he could not answer yet. One way or another, the mass will be removed, whether it is because it heals itself or surgically. And as for her bone, he said that hopefully the bone will be healthy enough to heal itself and return to normal. So many questions, so little answers.

She also sees Dr. Fabregas, her orthopedic surgeon, next week as well. So hopefully he will be able to answer some questions about the bone issues.

So, that is what we know for now. You know I will keep you posted with any information as soon as I can.

Oh, and are you still wondering why we hate Atlanta?

After we left the hospital, hungry and tired, ready to get home, nothing says Atlanta like a tractor-trailer full of chickens on fire in the middle of the interstate, shutting down I-85 south for almost three hours. And there we were, first car in line to get stopped, sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and still waiting. Every single time we go into the city, and I do mean every SINGLE time, without fail, we get stuck in traffic from a wreck.

I hate Atlanta!

Missing My Boys

It has been a week and a half with no boys. While I relish the quiet time at home in the evenings, life isn't the same without moments like this




Or gifts from my boys like this





But I shalln't despair.

The end is near.

Less than 48 hours to go.

And all will be back to normal.

Well, normal is a little strong.

Back to crazy,

As that seems to be the way of our life.

I've been Saved!

Something you may or may not know about me - when I get interested in something, I become obsessed with it. It consumes me, and I am constantly thinking of whatever it is. Some obsessions come and go pretty quickly, like say, redecorating. If I were to decide to redecorate a room in my house, I would literally put all of myself into it, but I would be done and ready to move on in a week or so.

Other obsessions come and go, then come and go again. Like scrapbooking. I LOVE to scrapbook. It is a great creative outlet for me. I love to create something unique and lasting. It brings me great amounts of personal satisfaction. But I do not have the time right now. So I don't do it all. Sad, I know, but if I were to start it up, every free moment I had would be spent on it, instead of doing things that absolutely must be done with the few moments of free time I do have, like say, oh, let's see, cooking dinner, spending time with my children, laundry, you know, all that fun stuff.

I guess you can say I have an addictive personality. Good thing I am not a drinker.

Of alcoholic beverages, that is.

Cause I am a drinker.

I love to drink.

I'm thirsty right now.

Anyway, if you have been around me or talked to me lately, you know I have a new obssesion.

But this one is a good one.

And I still get to do one of my most favorite things - shop.

But for the first time ever, my obssesion is not costing me tons of money.

In fact, it is all about saving money.

And man, let me tell you, I am saving some major money!

And it is so exciting!

Take a gander at my latest shopping trip:


Now that is quite a pile of loot, wouldn't you say?

Now had you been out shopping and picked up these items for yourself, you would have expected to spend around roughly $130.

But not me.

I only spent $37.

Oh yeah, you know that felt good.

I guess my obsessive compulsive disorder is finally paying off.

12

Hard to believe, 12 years ago, early that Saturday morning, the two of us became one.


Since I am the voice of this blog, and you hear me talking all the time, I thought we would switch things up a little today, and hear from the Man:

I could not think of a better day to write my first post on this blog. As Chrissy stated, it is hard to believe that 12 years ago today we were married and sealed for time and eternity. After 12 years and three children later, we have grown tremendously. We have learned so much together about family and the ups and downs of raising a family. As I think, the ups out weigh the downs by a great margin. Chrissy, I am grateful for you and love you with all my heart. I know that we will continue to grow and learn as our children continue to age. I look forward to spending the next twelve years as well as many more with you.

Thanks, babe.

Happy Anniversaty.

Love you too,

Nuff said.

It is, after all, our anniversary,

and the kids are in Alabama!

Hee, hee

While the boys are away

The girls like to play!

Madilyn and I spent the afternoon together Friday, just being girls, and doing our two favorite things - eating and shopping.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to shop. I am so glad Madilyn is finally old enough to want to shop. I think she likes it more than me, at least as long as we are buying her stuff along the way.

We started our afternoon out at Panda Express.


Orange Chicken - Yum!

Can't have my girl stinkin up the house, so we headed to Bath & Body Works to take advantage of the big sale. We racked up on some good stuff, and left with enough stuff to keep up smelling like ladies for quite a while.


You know your daughter is growing up when she requests dangling earrings. I know you can feel my heartbreaking. Why can't they just stay young forever? But, I can accept reality, so next on our agenda was a quick trip to Claire's.


Dangling earrings, sigh.

After a few more errands, we made our way home.

Now you would think that after such great day with mom, my girl would want to spend forever by my side. This however, was not the case.

Once Madilyn found out her next doctor's appointment wasn't for another week, she was ready to leave me. A quick phone call to Memaw, plans to meet her in Montgomery, one bag packed, and dad ready to drive, she was leaving me for a week in Alabama,


Now I am alone with my one stinky boy.

Sigh.

Keeping you up-to-date

After many phone calls back and forth, and one pissed off patient coordinator, because after a week of no results, I accused her of dropping the ball on my child's healtcare, I FINALLY spoke to the new patient coordinator for the infectious disease specialist Madilyn has been referred to.

Her appointment in on Monday, June 22nd at 4:00pm.

I know, another long week of waiting for answers.

Until then, she will continue with her antibiotic treatment.

But as far as Madilyn goes, she is feeling pretty much back to normal. She has almost full use of her right arm and shoulder now, with little to no pain, so that is a major improvement from two weeks ago.

If anything changes between now and then, I'll let you know.

Thanks again for all your concern for her well-being.

She is a very lucky girl to have so many people who love her and pray for her.

Thanks again!

Genes

Are you the type when you look at people, say with their kids or parents or other family members, you can often see the resemblance?

Have you ever heard yourself say, "You can't deny that child" or "They are the spitting image of you".

As if someone really knows what you like when you are spitting.

Gross.

Or what about the opposite? Has anyone ever asked you about your relationship with the mailman or the Fedex delivery guy?

Do your children get excited when the mail comes for reasons other than gathering the junk from within the sacred box?

How much do we really know about our family trees?

We all trim branches off the trees in our yards and gardens. They often call it pruning. Helps keep the tree growing properly and well-shaped.

But how much pruning has been done from our genetic family tree?

Why all the questions?

Take a look at these three.


The two outsiders, yeah, you know them as Madilyn and Colin.

But that one in the middle, that would be sweet little Emmie Leigh, also known as Donny's sister Jacquelyn's baby girl. How cute is she!

Now granted these children are a mix of different momma's and poppa's, Langley's, Parr's and Crawford's, but still, being that they are 1st cousins, I don't know, maybe some kind of resemeblance would be there.

Not at all the case.

AT ALL!

Now I am pretty sure I know what is in my family tree.

Maybe those Langley's need to take a closer look at what is in their tree.

I'm just saying.

Freedom, of Sorts

How do you define freedom?

I think freedom is one of the greatest blessings we have. We are so fortunate to live in a country that allows us to be free, to do what makes us happy, and live and worship as we please.

Well, sort of.

I love freedom. I love experiencing it.

Take this week for instance.

I have it.

Sort of.

My boys got shipped off to Alabama this weekend to spend some quality time with their Memaw and Pepaw, aka, Donny's folks.


Do you know how much quieter my house is without two boys?

Come by and see for yourself anytime.

You might be surprised, though.

We are a noisy bunch, with or without those rascally rabbits.

Adding the noisiest friend Madilyn has to the house doesn't help much.


Will I ever truly be free?

Doubtful.

But the real question is, Do I ever want to be free?


Let me ponder on that one while I wish for some peace and quiet.

Because I know you are checking,

I have an update on Madilyn for you. Dr. Fabregas just called. The mass is made up of an infection, so they are calling in an antibiotic as I type this. She will now have to go see an Infectious Disease doctor, sounds weird I know, to monitor the infection, and see how she responds to the antibiotics. So it is the best possible outcome to this whole ordeal. But we are not done yet. Let's just hope she responds well to the drugs and does not need more surgery.

Madilyn has done amazingly well through all this. Here is a picture of her with her super sweet nurse Karen right before we left the hospital on Monday.



Hard to believe she just had surgery that morning, huh. Karen sent her a card in the mail, and Madilyn thought that was pretty cool.

We were able to remove the bandage yesterday. And if seeing wounds and stuff grosses you out, don't look down. I know my mom wants to see this, so I have to post a picture of her stitches.


And from the side, you can see how the area looks swollen, but the bump is actually her bone. The mass is inside the bone and has caused the exterior of the bone to protrude. Gross, I know.


Hopefully as the infection goes away, the bone will return to normal. More questions I have to remember to ask.

So thanks again for all the prayers and for thinking of us during this difficult time. If anything changes, you know I'll let you know.

My Belated 100th post!

Are you ready to celebrate my milestone? Bunker down, cause here we go -

Wow, 100 posts! Hard to believe I have reached this milestone in blogging already! And, according to google, my 100th post should be all about me! So here goes - 100 things all about me. This will be quite self-indulgent, so if you're not into that sort of thing, leave now!

1. Umm, let's see, I have a hard time starting to write something.
2. Once I get going, the words flow pretty easily.
3. I had planned on growing up to be a teacher.
4. People ask me all the time if I am a teacher.
5. My glasses I wear now make me look more like a teacher.
6. They also help me see better, since I am practically blind.
7. I think people think I am a teacher because I am bossy.
8. And most kids like me because I am cool.
9. I wanted to be an English teacher because I always loved reading.
10. As a kid, I could read a book a day in the summer.
11. Now I can't find the time to read anything except spreadsheets and blogs.
12. I didn't grow up to be a teacher, unless you count teaching children how to not embarrass me everywhere we go.
13. I am not very successful at teaching that concept. No one listens to me.
14. I guess I am not as bossy as I think I am.
15. But I do have a loud mouth.
16. I don't like loud noises.
17. Or unnecessary noises, like birds singing, trains passing, kids screaming.
18. I cannot stand to hear wind chimes. So annoying!
19. To make up for my terrible vision, my other senses are extra keen.
20. I hear everything.
21. And I can smell anything.
22. You will often hear me asking, "What's that smell?" or "What is that noise?"
23. My husband thinks I am crazy.
24. Which is true, I am.
25. But I do hear and smell things that he never hears or smells.
26. He has perfect vision.
27. But this is about me, not him.
28. Speaking of him, we are about the celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary on June 14th.
29. It better be a good year, since 12 is my favorite number.
30. It was raining on our wedding day.
31. And I was late to the temple because I overslept.
32. I am hardly ever late for anything anymore.
33. If I am late, it is not my fault. And you can guarantee I will not be in a good mood if I arrive late, because that means we were rushing, and I do not like to rush.
34. Rushing stresses me out. And makes my hair frizzy.
35. I have extremely thick hair. Too thick, if you ask me.
36. My favorite thing to do when I am relaxing is twist my hair.
37. It is quite interesting to watch.
38. I have twisted my hair since I was a baby. I had thick hair then too.
39. I used to get into trouble when I was in school for twisting my hair because it was distracting to everyone else.
40. But it helped me concentrate.
41. When I twist my hair, I make little twiggers, as we like to call them, all over my hair.
42. I twig up my whole head sometimes.
43. I hate unexpected visits to my house, because more than likely, I have twigs in my hair that I am having to unravel really quickly before I can open the door.
44. I have been caught several times, and was quite embarrassed by the whole situation.
45. While I am working on this, everytime I stop to think of what to say next, I twig my hair.
46. It is an addiction.
47. I am also addicted to reality TV. The Bachelor, Bachelorette, Survivor, Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, Big Brother, and so on and so on.
48. I am also addicted to Coke. Nothing tastes better than that stuff. Trust me. If you don't think so, you are wrong!
49. My newest addiction is couponing. Once you realize how much money you can save, you can't shop any other way.
50. I don't do anything half-way, like this post for instance. Hold on, we got 50 more to go.
51. I have an addiction to collections.
52. When I become interested in something that is sold in a collection, I have a hard time resisting the need to buy all of everything that has to do with it.
53. Beanie babies, scrapbook supplies, Gymboree clothes, Littlest Pet Shops, you name it, if it is sold in a collection, I want the whole collection.
54. I have been trying to control that lately by avoiding all things that I like to buy.
55. It will soon get harder to do this once they open our new Hobby Lobby.
56. That is my favorite store. They have everything a collector could ever want. And more!
57. Something I need more of is time.
58. I wish I had 3 more hours in each day, but still only have to work the same amount. I don't know what I would do with the extra time, but I could definitely use it.
59. I would also like to go back in time and live parts of my life over.
60. But only if I knew what I know now.
61. One thing I know for sure is that every experience we have in life that seems significant at the time, actually is significant.
62. One of my biggest pet peeves is to hear people say, "Oh, ten years from now, this won't even matter." I don't believe that. I think everything that happens to us matters, and will matter to us forever.
63. Another one of my pet peeves is self-righteous people.
64. I cannot handle people who don't think they live in glass houses.
65. We all live in glass houses. So stay away from the rocks.
66. I have no desire to go rock climbing.
67. I do enjoy camping, but we never go. I wonder why.
68. Probably because we don't have the time.
69. Plus I don't like bugs.
70. But I love cooking over an open fire.
71. Good thing we burn trees all the time. Nothing is better than foil dinners on a nice crisp evening.
72. Our fire alarm went off in the middle of the night once. It literally scared the crap out of me. I couldn't go back to sleep the rest of the night.
73. One of my biggest phobias is that my house is going to burn down when I am out of town.
74. I am a poet, and I know it.
75. Another one of my phobias is storms, especially at night.
76. If it is raining, I am up, out of bed, checking the weather, and watching the sky.
77. This phobia can be completely blamed on Hurricane Elvis blowing through Memphis back in 2003.
78. Before that, I thought people who freaked out over storms were weird.
79. I also think people who like to talk about politics are weird.
80. Nothing stirs up people more than talking about politics.
81. And religion.
82. So I better change the subject, or else you won't keep reading this.
83. One of my most vivid memories as a child was my cat dying while we were at Disney World. I remember running up and down the street calling "Tootsie, Tootsie, I'm home, come home".
84. The stupid neighbors were supposed to be watching her.
85. Never trust your neighbors to watch your pets. No one cares about your pet the way you do.
86. And speaking of trust, another vivid childhood memory would be running into a barbwire fence in the dark of the night, after my sister ran off and left me. I was cut up from head to toe. Lots of stitches.
87. My sister is also to blame for another permanent scar on my forehead-my goose egg as we endearingly refer to it, compliments of my sister's inadequate driving skills and one terrible car wreck.
88. 20 years later, she still scares me when she is driving.
89. I do not deal with post-traumatic stress very well.
90. Once traumatized, always traumatized.
91. I also don't deal with annoyances very well. If you are getting on my nerves, you are going to know it.
92. I wear my emotions right on my face. Some people use the expression, you wear your emotions of your sleeve. I don't get that. Why would your emotions be on your sleeve? You can generally look at my face and know exactly how I feel.
93. But don't look closely at my hair. I am going gray.
94. This is another one of my biggest phobias. Gray before my time.
95. You can't fight time. It keeps on passing, all the time, right before your eyes.
96. Blink, and you miss a second.
97. But make sure you don't miss out on sleep. We all need a good night's sleep.
98. Especially me. It has been a long couple of weeks.
99. So good thing it is time to go to bed.
100.We made it just in time. Good night.

I missed my milestone!

My previous post, Good News, was a major blogging milestone -

IT WAS MY 100TH POST!

AND I MISSED IT!

I am an embarressment to all bloggers.

Please don't take my carelessness as a sign that I am not a true blogger.

Because I am.

But I have been a little distracted.

Forgive me, Blogger.

I will make it up to you.

We will celebrate

The way all true bloggers do

Can you guess what is coming soon?

Stay tuned. . .

Good News

We are home from surgery. It has been a long day, and we are all tired.

But I knew you would be checking for an update.

Everything went well with the biopsy.

We know that the mass is not malignant.

Hallelujah

Unfortunately, we still don't know what the mass is made up of.

They have sent the tissue off to pathology to find out what we the mass is made up of. It will be the end of the week before we know for sure what it is.

It could still be an infection.

Or it could be a benign mass, the doctor had some super long 20-syllable word to name it, I will have to call the office tomorrow and have them spell it out for me.

If it is this, she will need chemotherapy still. But not the worst kind, that causes your hair to fall out.

The details are all groggy, I am exhausted, and emotionally spent.

But we know it is not cancer, and that is enough for today.

I'll keep you posted on anything new.

Thanks again for caring and for your prayers.