Pre-Trip

I'm packing for our trip and making sure I have everything that Dylan has asked me to bring. He'll be going to Biloxi, Ms after this week is over and wants to take his computer, phone and I-pod with him.

I talked to him on Sunday and it had to be the best conversation I've had with him so far because of something very touching he said to me. He was so nice.

It looks like we might be going to Sea World while we are there so it's turning out to be like a mini vacation for our family. San Antonio is just one of those places where there are so many things to do.

Poor guy

I feel sorry for Ray sometimes because his job at the office is so hard!

Laughter, the best medicine

I want to thank everyone for your prayers for my dad who was admitted into the hospital last week. He is now home after 8 long days in that place, but they still don't know the exact cause of his illness. The doctors think they are getting close to a diagnoses but nothing conclusive yet.

He is feeling so much better and is improving everyday. He kept his sense of humor through this ordeal and was even making me laugh about some awkward things he was going through.

He's the reason why I have such a sunny outlook on life. What a great thing to inherit.

Preoccupied

I haven't exactly had blogging on my mind this week because my dad came down with a serious illness and was admitted into the hospital. Doctors still don't know what this is or what has caused it but he was feeling better yesterday and it was probably due to the fact that it was the first day he didn't have a fever.

I'm in awe of him as a patient. As sick as he's been this week, he's been so kind to the nurses and doesn't have anything bad to say about the hospital or staff. We've had other family members in the hospital before and they were huge complainers and just bad patients wanting all of their demands met. This man is a gentle giant and I'm hoping for him to get much better, very soon.

A Thanksgiving to be remembered

Thanksgiving this year was fun and relaxing. Tanya, Alan, Addison and Bailey drove up on Wednesday and we spent that evening celebrating Caitlin's 16th birthday. We celebrated a day early because Ray and Caitlin were leaving on Thursday to go to Raleigh, NC to play in some soccer games. Caleb came over earlier in the day on Wednesday to spend the day with her, so he joined us when we all went to Red Robin in Owasso to eat. She opened her gifts there and at the end of dinner, the staff sang a birthday song to her.

Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday was delicious. I never before enjoyed digging out the leftovers and eating over and over again as much as I did this year. I'm not sure what it was but it could have been that I spent Thanksgiving with family that is accustomed to eating leftovers through this holiday and I haven't had that in a long time. Getting Ray to do that and understand that you can't let food go to waste has been difficult. It was just plain nice and very enjoyable.

We watched a lot of HGTV and Fine Living television and curled up on the couch with blankets since the high temps outside were in the 40's the entire time.

All of the kids played guitar hero, video games and stayed up late together. I heard lots of laughter coming from down the hallway.

It was a special time.

The girls come to Oklahoma

Tanya, Bailey and Bailey's friend, Marlee, came to visit this past week. We spent the day shopping on Tuesday. The boys didn't go because that just isn't their thing. Tanya and I shuffled Caitlin back and forth to soccer practice on Wednesday and left everyone else at home to play games and jump on the trampoline. We finished the visit off by going bowling on Thursday. We witnessed a few strikes and a few spares but no person bowled a perfect score. This was surprising because afterall, Tanya and I did take lessons back in the '70s.
When the week was over, we were sorry to see them go. I hope that they weren't too bored and had as much fun as we did.

Congratulations Graduate!

This is for my sister who is graduating from college this weekend. An amazing feat that not everyone gets the opportunity to achieve. She'll be teaching elementary age children and I must say.... god bless you for taking on that task.