Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I just love this time of year!!!


All of my grandmother "Cookie's" great-grandkids. Well there are a couple missing from the picture. This is from our September/October birthday celebration at her house.


As you can already tell, I love Halloween. It is just a fun time. The kids are excited about going to Party City to pick out their costumes. We have already looked through a magazine and online. Steven has his picked out. Matthew is not quite sure yet. I am the type of person that LOVES scary movies and playing pranks. So it is just so much fun this time of year. On top of that Matthew's 5th birthday is coming up. I am doing a joint party for he and Kendall towards the end of October. We will do a little dinner on their actual birthday. I can't believe he is almost 5 and Kendall will be 2 in November. Where has the time gone?


I love party planning so doing a double party is just so cool. Well actually it will be a triple party. My cousin Rachel's little boy will be celebrating his 5th birthday as well. Throw in getting ready for Halloween, well I am in such a good mood. Halloween kicks off the holiday season. A time for family and friends and just being thankful to God for another year. WE have a lot to be thankful for this year. Brian is off treatment and officially cancer free!!! He had no ill side effects from the radiation. Thank you to everyone for your prayer and support. I have made some new friends this year and hope to continue on to strengthen those friendships.


Ending this post with some Kendall cuteness. She and her daddy and I had a tea party in her room right before bedtime. I had to grab the camera and get pictures of it. Her grandmothers will be so proud.










Thursday, September 11, 2008

7 YEARS!!



7 years ago today...




I was still living in the basement apartment at my mother-in-law's and it was just Steven and I. Steven was 18 months old at the time. I turned on the television and saw the first tower on fire. I was very confused because the station was on MTV. At first I was like what a strange video, then got to thinking wait a minute, this is MTV they don't play videos anymore. I continued watching the screen and saw the second plane hit the second tower.




My heart stopped. I was glued to the television. My heart ached for everyone inside. I tried changing the channel cause I couldn't handle it anymore but the footage was everywhere. All of a sudden the first tower fell and I broke down. I scooped Steven up and just held him tight. I couldn't believe it, that big huge building just fell and there were people inside. After the second tower fell I called Brian at work. I couldn't reach him the first dozen times I called. He finally called me back and said he wasn't in his office because he was in the lab watching what was happening. Then I could hear over the loud speaker of his work someone telling all the employees to go home and go home NOW!! You see he works right next to the Naval Air Station so I was panicing. He said he would be home shortly.




After he got home we sat and just watched the footage til we were both sick to our stomachs... the twin towers were now gone, the Pentagon had been hit and a plane had went down in a field in Pennsylvania. I was getting pissed by this point, there is not use sugar coating it. We ended up going over to Dana's house and just ended up spending the day with our friends. We called our loved ones up and told them we loved them. My heart still aches every time I see the footage.


I use this day as a time to reflect and remember those people who lost their lives that day 7 years ago and I will NEVER FORGET!! I hope you don't either. I am so proud of our men and women fighting for us. I am glad they are doing it too. I am proud of my brother Jeremy who is in the Marines. He missed his daughter's birth
and is missing out on seeing his kids daily just to be fighting for our country.


I am proud of my friend Britney, who is sacrificing the time she could be with her 3 year old son and new husband to be a Military Police Officer in the Army stationed in Afghanistan. She wanted to give her son a better life.


My cousin Tyler will be deployed on September 15, to Afghanistan and leaving his wife at home.




I have a friend who actually gave his life in a training accident outside of Afghanistan. He was so proud to be a member of the United States Navy. He always said he would be proud to give his life for his country. We thank you. Rest in Peace, Jason E. Lawson (9/24/80-3/12/02).I am proud of the families of these soldiers, of all the soldiers. I thank you.
I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!




There are so many more videos that I want to add, but it would just be easier to go to YouTube.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

"Mommy I love my new school!!!"

Matthew started Pre-K at his new school today. He was soooo excited he couldn't stand it this morning. When I picked him up this afternoon. I asked him..


Me: Matthew how'd school go today?


Matthew: Good, they have a Potato Head and I played with it.


Me: That's neat, did you make any friends today?


Matthew: Yep!


Me: Do you know their names yet?


Matthew: Yep!


Me: Well, what are their names?


Matthew: Who?


Me: Your new friends that you made.


Matthew: I don't know


Conversations with a 4 year old are interesting to say the least.


It was a surreal feeling this morning to walk him to class and leave. I have been working at the same school as him since he was in the one year class. It wasn't hard t leave him at all, just very weird. It will just take getting used to.


Kendall enjoyed having the house all to herself today. She played so nice and quiet. It was a nice change.




Friday, August 22, 2008

Such an AWESOME video

My sister-in-law, Brooke (my brother Jason's wife)sent me the link to this video. It is such an awesome video I had to share it.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hump Day and a lot to say!

Brian starts his radiation treatments tomorrow. He will have 15 treatments over a three week stretch, week days only. One possible side affect that he is not looking forward to is the nausea. The doctor gave him a script for an anti-nausea medicine, so let's hope that works. He will be going after work and has been told that he can drive himself. I was wanting him to be able to do it after work so he could come home and be able to crash if he needed to. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz said, "there's no place like home."


Steven is still enjoying school. I know it is only his third day. If you would have seen him before school started you know what a big deal this is. He said a few minutes ago, that homework in the 3rd Grade is easy. He seems to be enjoying the learning aspect of stuff this year. He is such a social child and it can be difficult to get him to concentrate when there could conversation going on. Gee, I wonder where he gets that from?


Matthew is so ready to go back to school. Unfortunatly he doesn't start until September 3rd. We have his open house to that on the 2nd of September. With it being just he and Kendall home right now a strong bond has formed between the two of them. They love to play together and have found some television shows that they both enjoy together. They also are fighting like brothers and sisters fight too. I don't want you to think that we had the kids from Leave it to Beaver or the Brady Bunch kids. We don't. They do all get along very well, but when they have had it with each other it can get quite loud. Luckily they don't use too much violence.


I haven't heard from the preschool where I interviewed at, aka Matthew's school. I know at the very least that I am a sub there. I am kind of relieved to be honest. Yeah, we could use the money, but I didn't know how we would be able to swing finding someone to watch Kendall and still make it worth my while to work there. So I guess I will look somewhere else.


Ending with some pictures of the kids.






Monday, August 18, 2008

Steven is a 3rd Grader

Well, Steven is officially a 3rd grader. After much moaning and groaning and "I don't wanna go to school because they make you do homework", he made it. He came home all smiles. He did have the dreaded "HOMEWORK" but he got over it. After he had his snack and did his homework and reading he realized that he could still go outside and play. The only difference is he won't be outside ALL day long just a couple of hours. That boy loves the outdoors. I think he would enjoy school more if it was in a tent and 100 degrees. He said he made a couple new friends and saw some friends that he has had in previous years. I did get a couple of pictures and he actually let me take one of him IN the classroom where there happened to be a couple of his peers. I was shocked.






Monday, August 11, 2008

Oh Where, Oh Where, Oh Where did summer go?

Well summer break is winding down, and let me tell you I have one little boy who is not too thrilled about having to go back to school. I am hoping after the open house at his school on Thursday he might change his mind a little. Here's to hoping, huh?!


Brian had a follow up appointment with his urologist last week and he wants him to do a "short course" of radiation. Which is actually what we wanted to do. We are waiting to hear from the radiologist for a time to start and how many treatments he will have. Brian has almost healed completely from his surgery and his spirits have remained high throughout this whole ordeal.


Our new furniture will arrive tomorrow and I can not wait. I will put up pictures when the whole room is done and completely painted. A strange thing happened today, actually right before I sat down to write this. I hear a knock at the door and I just thought it might be some of the neighborhood kids wanting the boys to come out and play. Well I was finishing up getting lunch prepared so the kids would be busy so I could do this. Well, Steven was "occupied" at the time so he never answered the door and the knocking was persistent. Anyway, we opened the door and there was the man asking if we would be willing to sell our old Mazda. That thing has been sitting in my driveway, not running for about a year. I was like "yeah, how much ya wanting to pay?" Well he looked at it did a few things, got the car started and said sold. The car really isn't worth much, so we made $300.00, which is good considering even that is high. Well I signed over the title and wrote up a bill of sale. How strange was that? The guy is a mechanic and that car is a mechanic's dream. The engine isn't one big computer so you can actually work on it yourself.


We went to Illinois at the beginning of the month. We haven't been up there in 4 years. Steven goes up regularly with my parents, but as a family we haven't gone in ages. Every year we have the Conner Family Reunion and in the past we have been unable to go because Steven always starts school the Monday after. Since he doesn't start till later, we decided now is the time to go. We had a great time seeing family we haven't seen in a while. Everyone got to meet Kendall for the first time and see Matthew since he was a baby himself. I got to meet my nephew Hayden who I haven't met yet and he just turned a year old. I also got to see my other nephew, Kinnick. I don't remember how old he was the last time I saw him. It was a very uneventful trip there and back, but it was good to get home. I am such a home body that I don't like sleeping other places and I love to get back in my own bed as soon as I can.


I got a phone call on the way up there from the school Matthew is to attend this fall. I had filled out an application there and they called to see if I could come in for an interview. I said yes, so after we got back I went in for the interview. They were impressed, as was I. I would love to work there. The only thing that might prevent that is they don't have any one year classes, so I would have to find someone to watch her. This person would have to be willing to do it cheap or by trading duties. So it might be more trouble than it is worth. I am not worrying about it yet, since I haven't been offered a job yet. Everything that has happened over this summer has taught me to give it up to God, and that is what I am doing. The right job will come along. I am however, a sub right now and that is probably just fine.

I guess that catches us up. I have more pictures, but since the other summer video was getting so long I made a new video, titled Summer 2008 part 2. The pictures are mainly from our trip to Illinois. We went through some parts that had been flooded not too long before we went through. I got some good shots of that.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

GOOD NEWS!!

Well we got the results from Brian's CT scan from this past Thursday. You ready??? NO CANCER!!!! Praise to God! He has a follow up appointment on August 6th to go over further treatments (radiation). I didn't want to get my hopes up but I knew that everything would be fine.


We are preparing to go to Illinois this weekend. Even though it will be a LONG trip just for the weekend I am very much looking forward to it. We NEED to get out of town for a little bit. Other good news is that we are getting new furniture. We have new living room and dining room furniture coming on August 12. I am super excited. We will be painting the living room, hopefully before the new furniture comes. It is just time for a change. We will be repainting our bedroom and the boy's room in the next couple of months as well. On top of that we are going to be helping my sister-in-law Kathy and her husband, Marc paint and get their new house ready for them to move in. So we will be doing a lot of painting. But that's okay, I like to paint.


Well catch you later. Also check out the video of our summer that is a few posts below. It is very long (almost 18 min) but I have added more pics and very funny video.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Video of Summer updated.

Just updated the Summer 2008 video. It has more videos too. I am warning you that it is long, but still hope you enjoy. There will be more stuff added soon. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think. You will have to go back a few updates to get to the video.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Amazing Story

I have been keeping up with many cancer patients through out the years. Friends of ours had a precious little girl that battled this horrible disease. She passed away in August of 04 at 13 months old. Well, through her website I started reading stories of other children. Some of them have passed away, some are continuing to go through treatment, and some are done with treatment and living life the way children should be. There is one guy that stands out in my mind right now though. He is done with treatment, but he is not doing well. His name is Tyler Copley. Now, I don't know him personally, if feel like I do because of his website. This past weekend there was an article in the AJC about his mother and him. It is a wonderful story about the heroics of a mom and her love and duty to her child. The link to the article is below.

He also has a caringbridge site, www.caringbridge.org/ga/tylercopley


All these children hold a special place in my heart. They are some of the most couragious people.

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