Dad update

Some of you have been asking how my dad is doing... maybe we should do a caring bridge site at some point, but I guess a part of me is hoping this will be short lived and there's no need to do a whole new website... I know that is probably not realistic thinking, but... And my sweet dad is such a private person, he just hates for attention to be on him. So dad, if you read this, sorry, but it's an easy way to post some updates on you :-)

Though not sure there is much to report right now... the biggest news is that he had to move his care from Mayo in Jacksonville (where they live) to MD Anderson here in Orlando. They received a HUGE bill from Mayo (and there are still more to come) - they knew they were out of network going to Mayo but thought they just had to meet a certain deductible and then it would all be covered... that wasn't the case, so he has had to move all treatments, appointments, etc. to MD Anderson, which is in network. The bad news is that he has to travel here to Orlando each week - thankfully we live here and can help and they have a free place to stay each week :-) My mom also told me that MD Anderson was ranked #1 in cancer hospitals (they saw it in a cancer magazine), and everyone I have talked to here in Orlando that has used MD Anderson speaks very highly of it. So, hopefully he will receive super good care there!

I think he will have scans again in about another month or so - I haven't heard anything about this lately since he moved his care to here. I am supposed to go with him to his next doctor appointment, which is Thursday, October 22nd, and hopefully we will find out more then. I don't think the chemo has been too, too terrible. His normal wake-up time now is about 3 a.m. (having trouble sleeping), and of course, the hair is starting to fall out, but the side effects are definitely not as bad as last time around (several years ago).

Thank you all my sweet friends and family for your prayers and concerns for how he is doing!

All knowing Cole?

The school has started this really awesome Bible curriculum this year through Summit Ministries. I may be a little biased towards it because Summit has a location at Bryan College, where Chris and I attended, but I have to say, they do some really awesome trainings on other worldviews and how a Biblical worldview fits into our lives. (They also have one in Colorado). Apparently they have now created a curriculum for elementary school kids. It is neat to see the papers Cole brings home but even better, the things he comes home and talks about.

A few weeks ago, he said to me "Mom, did you know God is all knowing? He knows everything!" And then he started telling me all sorts of things God knows. And me, thinking we were going to have this wonderful conversation and great teaching moment, responded back to him with some comments of my own. He then said"I wish I was all knowing!". Yeah, so much for that great spiritual conversation. He went on to tell me how cool it would be if he could know everything, like who was going to win the football game or what someone was thinking, etc. Oh well...another day... I just laughed - thank goodness only God knows everything!

First Day of School!!!

Dwight Howard basketball camp

Chris worked the Dwight Howard basketball camp last week and Cole was able to attend also. He was a little young (it was supposed to be age 7 and up, but they allowed Cole to do it since Chris was working). He had so much fun and was in total awe of Dwight Howard (as can be seen from the picture below!). I said this on Facebook also, (so if you've already read it, sorry for the repeat!) but it made me think about when we get to heaven... will we be so in awe of Jesus that we can't take our eyes off of Him? (It may be hard to see in this picture but Cole is smiling a HUGE smile but his eyes are completely on Dwight Howard - not at all towards the camera!)

More July pics

Chris took a razor to all of their heads! I was a little surprised at how short Luke's hair turned out. I have to admit it looks pretty cute, but I was still a little sad. Cole called them the "bald boys".


Ansley made this sweet picture today at church. In case you can't read it, the top says "The Lord will hear when I call to Him". Psalm 4:3. At the bottom, the teacher wrote what Ansley was drawing a picture of (who she was going to pray for). It says "I will pray for Papa". She said this is a picture of her with Nana and Papa. Ansley is in the middle and Nana is on the right. Notice the use of the belly buttons on the adults :-)

Went to Wauchula last week to see my grandparents, Granny and Papa Hill. Here Papa Hill feeds Luke some ice cream. I meant to get a picture of Ansley with Granny Kay but forgot to do it... Ansley made Granny a bracelet with the beads she got (after getting 4 shots last week!). Granny cut Ansley's hair, too, and then she let Ansley "fix" her hair. It was quite a sight!

Chris took Cole and Luke fishing while Ansely and I were at a little school party. Cole proudly shows off his fish!

July pictures

Chris and Cole went with Cole's good bud Caleb and his dad Jason and our friends James and his dad Jamie to the Daytona race.

Cole's favorite driver, Jeff Gordon.

Luke has now become a big fan of the Geotrax trains (formerly his big brothers). Cole and/or Ansley usually make the track for him and then he spends hours playing with it.

Chris and I got away to Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach area for the weekend for our 11th anniversary. Sadly, this is the only picture we took there. Nana and Papa watched the kids...I know they were pretty tired after the weekend was over, but we SO appreciated the weekend away!

Month of June

Oh boy, it sure has been awhile... Fun summer! Here are a few pictures from the month of June.

Basketball camp... One of Cole's favorite times of the year. Cole received the Hot Shot award again this year (the campers have a time each day where they shoot from various spots and each spot is worth a certain amount of points. The total is added up at the end of the week for the winner). I told Chris people are going to start thinking his camp his rigged if his son keeps winning :-) Here's Cole getting his trophy.

Ansley's second year of basketball camp. She didn't enjoy it as much as Cole (not thinking she will be a future basketball player!), but she still had a good time. She has definitely learned the art of chewing on the front of her shirt from her dad!


Jacksonville Zoo. Went to visit Nana and Papa one weekend in June (Chris was gone), and they took us to the zoo. It was SO hot. The kids had fun seeing the animals, playing in the spash park, riding the train. Did I mention it was hot?








Cole and the ostrich... Cole's remark about this animal was "He's smiling at me". Then when we got around to the other side of the park, he pointed at it and again pointed out "Mom, that's the ostrich that was smiling at me". Cole thought he had found a friend. :-)

A Wee Little Mess

So Chris got a kind of last minute invite to go the Magic Finals game tonight. He came home after basketball camp for close to 2 hours, so he told the kids he would take them down to the pool for a short time. They were in a hurry, getting on swimsuits, grabbing towels, pool toys, etc. I stayed home to start dinner. When they got back home, everyone came in and went off in different directions to change clothes. Chris walks back into the kitchen at the same time that I look over to see Luke standing there in a wet puddle, trying to pull his swim shorts off. And then I hear Chris say "Oh Luke, did you go poo-poo?" And then I hear "Oh no. I forgot to put a swim diaper on." And then I think "Oh joy. This is going to be FUN!".

Sure enough, Luke had done a little "number 2" in his swim shorts, and he was standing in a puddle of some type of liquid. We weren't sure if it was just lots of water from his shorts (very small chance it was this) or if he had done a little pee there (very good chance that this was the case), so we treated it as he had used the floor as his personal toilet and started trying to clean it up. Oh yeah, need to make a note that Cole walked in from outside shortly after this and slipped on the puddle, landing on his bottom on the floor. Being the very caring and sensitive mom that I am (at least in this crazy moment), I laugh (and then I say "I'm so sorry for laughing - you just looked so funny. Are you o.k.?")

Did I mention I had a chicken quesadilla cooking on the stovetop? Thankfully it was the last one to be cooked and was an extra, because it got burnt in all the chaos. We quickly scrambled to clean Luke up, the floor, the bathtub and bathroom floor (from the mess of trying to clean Luke). The whole time Luke is standing in the bathtub going "yuh-ee, yuh-ee" (yucky) and pointing to the mess all around him. The kids are saying "Ooh, gross!" Chris is saying "I'm so sorry. I can't believe I forgot that." And I'm just laughing.

We got it all cleaned up and sat down to eat a quick dinner. Chris gave hugs and kisses and ran out the door to get to the game. Had to add this picture that he sent to me via text of the TV guys there at Amway Arena.

The long week

Luke started running a fever Monday morning, and it didn't go away until Thursday afternoon (after a trip to the doctor), so we stayed at home (and inside alot) for most of the week. We even pretty much chilled on Friday, since Luke was still not 100% by then. Cole had a dentist appointment Thursday morning (Luke was with Chris), so I was actually kinda looking forward to it by the time it came around - a reason to get out of the house!

I struggled with things to keep the kids busy (not used to having Cole home, too, and being at home all the time!). Here we made a "city", complete with roads, grass, a pond, buildings, etc. I forgot to take a picture of the completed project, so it's still a work-in-progress in these pictures. The kids had fun with it, and now Ansley has claimed it has her own for her Matchbox cars.

We had a picnic later that day - had to take advantage of the times Luke was feeling ok (when he had the Motrin in him!).

Water Park

A local park has a really nice area where there are all sorts of sprinklers and different types of water sprayers, etc. We went there on Monday and the kids had a blast.

Forever Young

So we're riding in the car the other day and had a conversation that went something like this:

One of the kids (can't remember which): "Mom, did you play basketball when you were younger?"

Me: "Yes, I did. That's why I can beat Cole when we play" (though that's not usually the case - he usually beats me because I am too scared to play very hard against him. The last time I tried to really get a rebound, he cut in front of me and under my feet, knocking me over so that I fell on the ground and skinned my hands up, just like when I was a kid!)

Cole: " I know that you played basketball because I saw a picture"

I reminded him that he had brought that picture of me in my basketball uniform (9th grade) back from Nana and Papa's house. I had curly hair, was two sizes smaller (size 0 at the time!), and definitely looking much younger.

Cole says "Yeah, you look the same Mom. Just like when you were in that picture. Same hair and skin and everything."

That was probably 16 years ago...while it's definitely not true that I look exactly the same, he did make my day! :-)

Ansley's Birthday Party

Ansley's 1/2 sleepover was Friday night... It was a pretty fun time for all of us, though Chris and I were pretty pooped after the 7 little 3-6 year girls left. When they first got her, the girls made a little craft.

Caleb came with his sister Katey so that Cole could have a buddy too. They watched a Tom & Jerry movie in our bedroom, played basketball and played with their Nascar cars. Luke joined them for a little bit of the action :-)

Playing a toss the pillow type game (kind of like musical chairs or hot potato) - to make it more of a treat instead of a disappointment for getting "out", the girls got their faces painted once they were out. No pictures of that since I was the one painting the faces (only flowers or hearts - had to keep it quick and easy!). They also got little sticker earrings put on their ears.

The picture below is with her two closest friends, Olivia and Katey.

Opening presents...

Originally she had told me she wanted one of those Barbie doll cakes with the actual Barbie doll stuck in the middle of it (and the cake is her dress). I wasn't too excited about that, because the cake from Publix is not cheap and I wasn't sure about making that one, but then she said she just wanted cupcakes. Hooray!! Very easy to do! I can't believe she's 5 now... she definitely has her fiesty moments, but I love her (mostly!) sweet and sensitive heart. When I picked her up from her class at church on Sunday, the teacher said Ansley had been a good friend to Cade, our precious little special needs friend. She is almost protective of him when she is around him, and I am so thankful for those little things that she sees, even at this young age. Happy Birthday Ansley Kate! We love you so, so much!!!

Chris the Snake Hunter

Ansley's party was to start at 5:30 on Friday night. I was frantically trying to clean up and get ready for it when Chris got home a little after 4. I heard the garage door go up, so I was glad to know that he was home...until he comes in and says he saw a snake go into the stripping along the bottom of the garage door. We all ran out and sure enough, there was a snake peeking his head out. We were afraid the snake might be poisonous because there were some red and gold colored spots all over the snake, so Chris went to work trying to get the snake out. I brought out these large grill tongs and Chris tried to push the snake out.

At first he couldn't get the snake to come out...I started to panic, because we should be getting ready for the party, and even worse, the snake could get into our garage, where our kids have all their bikes, toys, etc and where they're constantly playing in. Talk about sweating (especially for Chris!) Finally, Chris used his hands to feel for the snake and found him at the other end from where we first saw him peek his little head out. He was able to push Mr. Snake out and then eventually killed him (with a shovel, which I hurriedly grabbed and tossed to Chris - from a safe distance!). Here the kids are checking out the snake...

And then we looked up online and realized it was just a corn snake, which is not poisonous. I felt a little bad for killing him...but not that bad. Oh, I could just imagine finding him later in the week in our garage. Whew!

Memorial Day weekend

It was kind of a last minute decision to go to Jacksonville for the weekend. The kids were asking about seeing Nana and Papa, and since I can't really think of many ways to help them out right now, other than letting them see the kids, we decided to head there for a short visit. It was a lovely weekend (NOT) as it rained the entire weekend. Silly me, I took my bathing suit and all my beach attire, as if I thought we might actually enjoy a nice day at the beach. Chris and Papa did take the kids to the pool for a short time when there was a break in the rain, but I had no desire to do that (it was cold!). The kids still had fun playing outside (who says a little rain is going to stop them?). You can't see in these pictures, but it is raining...

Cole LOVES to build, especially at Nana and Papa's house. He has a wonderful little friend, Cooper, who lives across the street. Cooper is the same age as Cole (just finished Kindergarten also) and they are really good buds. They love creating all sorts of projects out of my dad's "stuff" in the garage. Cole started working on this one on his own.

And my sweet husband just cannot sit still, which turns out to be a good thing for my parents (especially Nana, as she gets lots of yard work done while he's there!). They have a HUGE corner lot and it is not an easy task to complete the mowing. You can't tell in this picture, but it is raining - he pushed on even through the rain (and no shoes - only brought his flip flops, which he shed after the first few minutes of mowing).

Saturday night dinner...Luke just loves corn - especially corn on the cob. I found that out last week when I cut the corn off his cob - he was not happy about that and wanted the cob that was on MY plate. At my parents house, he ate his own cob and finished off mine and Ansley's. I think he would have kept on eating till there was nothing left if we hadn't stopped him.

Ansley's officialy birthday was on Sunday, though we have been celebrating for the entire month now, or so it seems. We gave her our presents and one more from Nana and Papa (and took her out to dinner later that night, back in Orlando).


The birthday girl with Nana and Papa.

End of the year for Cole

Cole has had a busy few days with all of the end of the year stuff. Thursday was the last chapel of the year, and Cole received an award in the chapel for the 100% Club. Students who participate in the AR (Accelerated Reader) program choose books to read and then take short tests online that cover material from the book that he read. Cole met his goal for the quarter and also scored a perfect score on each of the tests. Apparently there were only a few kids from his class that were participating in AR (based on the student's ability to read), so it was great that he was even able to participate in it, much less get this award.

And my precious ADD child...he was up on stage in Faith Hall, a big building where the lower school chapel was held. The choir (in yellow shirts) was behind him and he was so curious as to what was going on behind him (forget being up on stage and looking out at all the people...and mom, who had the camera!). I tried to get several pictures of him but in each one, he was turned around checking everything out.

Later that day, his class held their own class awards. His classmates voted him the "Best Smile" Award. I have to agree that he does have a pretty cute smile :-) Mrs. Cline also announced the AR readers and how many words they read... Cole read over a thousand words! I think one little girl who started AR back in the fall had read over 5,000! Cole just started a few months ago, so I thought he did great!

This picture above is from his class party, held on Friday. It was an Under the Sea theme, but unfortunately, it didn't get to be outside with the big water slide, as originally planned (due to this crazy weather!). They did have fun inside and now he is officially a 1st grader! I can't believe it!! And we survived Kindergarten...I thought for sure he would drive his teacher crazy (and us also) but he did really well. It amazes me to see how much he has grown in so many ways...academically, physically, spiritually, and how he has matured. Yep, still have a LONG ways to go, but he has done well!