Ladies Retreat

The group of women, and of course they were not all at there yet :) WOW!

Michelle, Amy, and I being silly before the devotional

My second mom that helped raised me, love you !!! Amy (what can I say, you are the best and most wonderful person in the world) and me. Below is Andrea and I (she is the best teacher in the world) So encouraging :)

What a wonderful weekend this has been. I went on a ladies retreat with the women from the church. I had a great time. I met some really wonderful and blessed women. Our retreat was at the Red Apple Inn in Heber Springs. It was a really neat place, I am wanting to go on a weekend trip there with my husband. They have a golf course and massages.
I was thinking Friday that I shouldn't go. Things were hectic and I thought of just canceling my weekend. I am so glad I didn't. I was uplifted by so many things. I am just reminded by why we are here.
I am wore out from this. We stayed up until the morning and only got about 5 hours of sleep before we had to get up and have our devotional. Here are some of the photos I have. I will be able to get more. Everyone is going to put there's onto a disk. Someone is going to make us a disk with all of them on there.

A fun day with the family

This past Sunday was a great day. We went to meet with family we have not seen in about 10 years. It was my Aunt's birthday so it was special for all of us. Peyton of course was giving us a hard time not wanting to go. Saying he is going to just stay in the bedroom and I thought fine if that is what you want. Well it turned out he had a blast. He met his Aunt for the first time and they hit it off. Every time I turned around he was with her, outside swinging. I am so blessed that someone in the family can get through to him. He is wanting to stay a weekend with her. That is amazing to me. I have to pull teeth just to get him to go stay with the Grandparents. WOW!!! She is a retired school teacher specializing in special needs. She has the magic touch. I had a wonderful weekend. I look forward to spending more time with them.

One Eye Kyle :(

Well I have been battling something with my baby Kyle. I had no idea that he was not seeing anything out of one eye. He got new glasses 3 months ago and at that point I was blinded about how bad this situation was. We are going through a patch therapy for 9 months and we are going to revisit to see if his sight is any better. What the eye doctor has told us is that the vision part of the brain did not develop on the left side. The muscles though did develop and that is a great sign. We are trying to trigger the brain to get that vision working. If it does not work, he outcome is grim. He just won't ever be able to see out of it. What has happened is the senses of the right eye has done all the work. I am so upset with this and feel so bad because when his eye is patched, his punishment is trying to play the game boy for 2 hours a night. Who wouldn't like that punishment?? Well when you can't see it is frustrating. He is struggling for the whole two hours. I want to just cry every night for him. We have been doing this for 4 days now, so we have a long road ahead of us. I will post pictures once his patch comes in. He chose a glow in the dark ghost. Right know we are putting band aids on him every night.

The Spelling Bee

Before the big event. Can't you tell he was nervous.


Him hiding in his seat :)


Him spelling the word, look at the already emptied seats.


Him leaving the stage :(


The group with there certificate

Today was the big day for Peyton. He was one of 36 kiddos that made it to the spelling bee in his school. YEA! He drew number 33 so he was happy to be in the back row. He was pretty nervous to go up in front of the whole school and parents and do this. I tried to calm him down, but this was a big thing for him. He was up against 4th and 5th graders. One by one the kids was failing to spell the words right so I knew this event was going to go fast. Ok it was Peyton's turn and the word is PRAGMATIC. He asks for the definition and they gave it to him. He then asks for the word again, and he says PRADMATIC. The next thing he here's is, this is incorrect so he is out, just like that it was over. Six kids made it to round 2 and then was left with 2. It took 22 minutes for the whole thing. He was pretty moody the rest of the day. I was so proud of him, one he made it and two he was a young chicken. He will have next year and the year after that.

The NEW YEAR

The new year has began. Nothing new for our family, we tend not to make resolutions because let's face it, who can keep them. My husband and I did make a few, be a more patient with the boys and make more time for us. I want a new hair do and that is one of my resolutions. When I reflect on the past year (2008). It has been good to us in the long hall. We had some ups and some downs, but all and all we are blessed. Our family is healthy. Something great that made the end of the year special was that Malynda found me and we are going to start meeting every month or at least every other month and keep in touch. Our first outing will happen on Jan. 10th. My boys are so excited for this. The two youngest have never met her or Nick. I can't believe how much Nick has grown up. He is such a handsome young man. He is happy! I get to also meet his future wife. This year I do want to keep in touch with family better that is further away and we can't see often. I am going to make a point to go to Mt. Home when my cousin from Iowa comes down. (Give me as much notice as possible please). This summer is also when a good friend is coming for a visit from Germany. I can't wait for that either. Her boys are getting so big and my boys (especially Kyle) can't wait to see them. So I am hoping that 2009 will be a great year for our family.

?????

I have been kinda down with my step dad and his surgery. We are waiting to see if he has to undergo radiation on top of the the surgery. They did have to take a hand full of nerves. Though he did get his catheter out yesterday. I know he was relieved of that. We are going up to see the family tomorrow. This is a quit trip for us. I do have to work Monday and Tuesday. The kids have been out of school due to icy weather so they have a short week this week, only 3 days. Today is the Christmas parties at school and I am headed up there to help. I will get some pics of that.

Kyle and his new glasses

Well we have had a lot go on in the past month, my sister got in an auto wreck, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, my brother's house flooded, my aunt was in an auto wreck 2 days ago, my other aunt had some cancer removed from her face, and my sister's boyfriend was arrested again for driving without a license. You would think they would learn there lesson after the 10th time. I wish they would just live by the rules given to them and one day after the time is up things would be good. Her poor kiddos need to see them do this. They are so sweet and innocent. I just want the best for my niece and nephew and sister.

Well Kyle has had to get some glasses, we got them today and he is already not wanting to wear them. He will have to get used to them. He is supposes to wear them all the time.

My heating unit is working great. We have had some cold weather.

My AC/HEAT UNIT is in

Well, not completely yet. They are here and working on it as we speak. I cannot wait to have an efficient unit with less electric and gas bills.

Thank you so much Jolee for your comments. I miss talking to you. I hate that it is rainy season for you. Do you flood? Or is it just always a drizzle or mist? It is a great day today and we won't even need to turn or new unit on. Our football season has been great, just one HOT game. The rest have been perfect. We have three more games to go. Oh I take that back. Last game was cold and rained the whole game, and I don't mean drizzle, I mean rain. We were like wet puppies.

Busy and more...

I have not been myself lately. I think everyone goes through this once in a while. We have just had alot go on in our family. Nothing major, well for my brother and his family, yes it is major. They are doing ok. Still have no home. It might be 6 months or more before they can get back to home.

Well when my brother left my house a week later our heating and air unit went out. So we have been trying to get quotes and taking the boys to practice, going to games. I have been working a lot. We are gearing up for basketball season, by the way. Peyton does not get to play this year. He is having a bad attitude with everything so we are going to have to take a break. Kyle does not want to play, which is ashamed. I am not going to force anything on my kiddos.

Here is a slide show of some of the pics I took while my brother was here.