Playing around with the camera. . .

I loved these two pics - they were taken after church on Sunday.

After the sun goes down. . .

Just because the daylight vanishes, doesn't mean the work stops....that's what flood lights are for! Richard LOVED swinging with his daddy when they got that part put up (of course he still loved the slide) and then we came in to warm up, eat supper, and Richard took part in one of his favorite activities: coloring!

Saturday = Work Time for the adults and play time for Richard....

Poppa and PatPat came up for the weekend - Poppa came to help Ty finish working on Richard's playset - Richard did NOT want to wait and so he would tell his daddy to move over and down the slide he would go....he was a good helper retrieving tools and carrying them to his daddy and grand-daddy when they needed them.

Finally Our Time To Bowl....

Richard let Ty help him the first couple of times, but after that he picked up, carried and rolled his seven pound ball all by himself - how many two year olds can do that!?!?! Now, you will notice his average speed down the lane(1.18miles per hour), but what counts is the look of sheer joy as he played!

Friday Night means Family Night

Friday night we opted to not go to the NWR homecoming game due to fear of crowds and cold weather - instead we went to Penn's and then to the bowling alley - little did we know that it was League night so we had to wait till 9 o'clock - talk about taking money and patience to entertain a two and a half year old for that long - anyway - we had fun playing basketball and yes my sweet lil man who loves order in his world playing and lining up his new little friends from the gumball prize machine.

Library Time....

Richard still LOVES to go and see Mrs. June at the library - in fact we have pictures of the library for every week till we go and "see Mickey" so that it is easier for him to keep up with how many weeks till we go to WDW. I was tempted to post the pics of Amy and Kozy but thought they might kill me.... a lot of the pics showed red or white eyes so I'll have to take my camera again this week.

Neat Blog to check out....

It isn't often these days that Richard takes a substantial nap on the weekends, but today his PatPat laid down with him and he is currently snoozing away - whew - I can just relax for a bit - anyway, I still am not good about knowing the ins and outs of the blogworld, but I ran across a link from Robin's page - it is entitled Life in Germany and this is the link I used to get there http://allison-and-paul.blogspot.com/ - it is amazing how many hits she has from all over the world - I may have to look into doing one of those tracker things - I'd probably laugh though because there'd be less than a dozen hits..... anyway - this blog is really cute and the girl who writes it has a great sense of humor - check it out when you get a chance..... if lil man sleeps a bit longer I may even get some pics uploaded from our fun filled weekend - bowling, eating out, playing in the backyard, feeding the fish, arranging pumpkins, and "helping" daddy build the play fortress in the back - you know I am kidding hunny - but he will be the only little boy with a playground sized playset in the neighborhood= hmm maybe it will help to sell the house one of these years.

Mommy and Richard time. . .

Today I had to stay with Richard since our sitter is still in a lot of pain and out of commission so we decided to bake some cookies together. . . sprinkles and all....in fact I think that the sprinkles were the hit of the whole process. He loved helping mommy and it was a great time before settling down for our afternoon nap.

Finding a Silver LIning. . .

Yesterday I was just so overwhelmed that I was to the point of tears - as I was driving my car found its way to the a little neighborhood park . . .I am so glad that I stopped....just taking the time to hear Richard's laughter and see the delight on his face totally refreshed me and gave me a new outlook on the day...I am still frustrated about some things but they are beyond my control and I need to be faithful to leave them in God's hands so that He can be in control.

Making Lemonade from Lemons....

Our sitter fell and is "out of commission" so yesterday I "split" the day with Kozy so that neither of us would have to be out the full day. I kept Richard and Claire during the morning hours and then they switched and went to Kozy's house for the afternoon. They had a wonderful time playing in his room (dumping out EVERY toy he owns), watching Veggie Tales, feeding the fish, and literally running circles around the house (yet another video clip I need to upload). It was a rather odd feeling to look in the rear view mirror and see TWO kiddos - think MAYBE I could grow accustomed to it - see TY, there is hope for me yet. LOL

Fun with MeMe

I love this picture of Richard and my mom - NO I didn't pose him - he just posed himself and MeMe snuggled in for the pose! LOL I also just HAD to share his block building - he STILL wants to organize and build by color...wonder where he gets that!!!

One of Richard's Favorite ways to spend an afternoon. . .

Recently my Aunt Jean and Uncle Bobby were in town from Arkansas... Richard has now named Uncle Bobby "Bob Bob" - guess he thinks that he is kinda like Bob the Builder. I'm not sure who had more fun: Richard or Uncle Bobby, but they both had a great time feeding the duck and geese at the lake. It is so funny as you look at the progression of the pictures to see how all of the ducks begin their trek across the lake when they realize that Richard has food...what's amazing is that not all of the ducks bothered rousing from their afternoon naps to come and eat. I love to hear Richard belly laugh and one of these days I will figure out how to add video so y'all can here the delight in his voice as he fed them.

One of many ways to delay bedtime. . .

NOT A NEW FACT: our child doesn't like to sleep- never has - probably never will....I am firmly convinced that all of the baby books that talk about newborns sleeping three fourths of the day are all lies and fiction!! Anyway, back to this point in time.... Richard is always trying to find new ways to put off bedtime just a few minutes here and there....one of his favorite is to say "wait mommy - I build for you" - hmmm - look at those future architectural skills. . . .

The Past Week or So....

I went to a REALLY great gifted conference last week - probably the most interesting and helpful session was about "dual rulings" - children that are gifted + something else (like dyslexia, aspergers, ADD, ADHD, and many many others)....I went up Wednesday afternoon and came home Friday...in the meantime my WONDERFUL in-laws came and got Richard and took him back home with them (my mom was supposed to be picking up Richard in the afternoons, but dad can't be around lil people germies at the moment) - Friday evening when I got in, Ty and I went to supper and then headed to Louisiana - spent some time Saturday at the Nissan dealership - can't wait to post a pic for Ty but will wait till it is officially his next weekend! Headed back to MS on Sunday by way of Clinton to celebrate Mom's birthday almost a week late and see how daddy was doing.

Daddy is doing really well. He still has the catheter in, but they are hoping to take it out on Thursday. He had a rough day Friday and ran a low temp but all was ok. Please continue your prayers for him as he continues to recover and he learns his new daily routine (he begins his day with a breakfast of 20 pills!!!)

Also, really important: please pray for my Cindy (I don't know how to link her name so this is her link: http://www.thebeckwithfam.blogspot.com/ ) She sent a text on Sunday morning saying that she had been admitted to the hospital because her water had broken and it is NOT time yet to deliver lil Miss Emily Ann...please lift Cindy and Emily up in prayer. Thanks so much.

GO UMC TRANSPLANT TEAM! THANK YOU GOD!!!!

Hi - it's 11:23 and I just got home - mom called me about one o'clock today saying that they had recieved another phone call and that the transplant team had requested that they report to the hospital within the hour - I readied my lesson plans for next week - went and got Richard, took him to his daddy at work and headed to the hospital - when I got there daddy was already back in the "holding area" as they did some testing to see if he and the donor kidney were "friendly to each other" - by this time they did have a room that they were letting mom stay in while daddy was in this holding pattern - at around 5 the nurse in the OR called to say that the next call would be to tell us that they had made the first incision or that the procedure had been cancelled - about 5:20 the phone rang with the good news that everything was "a go" and daddy was indeed in surgery and would be for an hour to two hours - mom and I went downstairs and grabbed a bite to eat and quickly headed back up to the room to make phone calls to friends and relatives to say this was REALLY going to happen unlike four weeks ago - by 7:25 Dr. Blandeau was peeping through the door with this HUGE grin ear to ear - he said that all went well and that daddy was in recovery but hopefully would be back upstairs to CCU about 8:30 or 9 at the latest - it took a bit longer than that because daddy was cold and in a lot of pain - mom assured me she was fine and so was daddy but I was NOT budging till I had seen daddy and given him a kiss!!! At about 9:45 I was out at the nursing station asking for an update when I heard a sleepy but strong for just coming through transplant surgery - "there's my baby" - once a daddy's girl ALWAYS a daddy's girl!! My brother and his family arrived safely in town and are staying at mom and dad's tonight before heading back home tomorrow - my brother is a music minister and is at his new church for the first Sunday this weekend.

The next few hours and days are REALLY crucial - I covet your continued prayers for daddy especially (Jerry Spires), but also the staff taking care of him and our family as we each help daddy through this recovery. Daddy will be in the CCU for about five days.
I am so grateful to live in Jackson MS tonight where GREAT things are going on in the TRANSPLANT department!!


**This is the email I sent out to my coworkers, excuse me if the wording is choppy - I am exhausted and headed to be for a few hours.

Here We Go Again. . .

Richard woke up sneezing today - I'm sure as a result of his allergies flaring up after his day outside at the park yesterday - so we decided to stay home and take some allergy meds. As I poured up the dose I told Ty I needed him to help (I don't know what happened to my child that used to take meds with NO arguments - now it is WORLD WAR III). . . as he came to help, Richard ran away and then it happened. . . SMACK!. . . . SILENCE. . . then WAILING!!! In his attempt to get away from daddy, Richard fell and smacked his head (yes the same place he hit it before) only this time it was on the corner of Ty's nightstand and it broke the skin. The crying ceased, the loving on mommy began- UNTIL I was the bad guy too and made him put the ice pack on his head! As you can tell from the pics, after a couple of hours he was back to his smiling self and we had to spend a good portion of the day playing "cars" and "race track." And, YES- he likes to LINE all the cars up before sending them on their merry way - and just for the record, there is a SPECIFIC order in which he likes them lined up and he will correct you if you do it "wrong." Oh well, long day - no real nap - and a child that at 9:30 still has not fallen asleep....at this rate I'm going to have to change my facebook status of "ready to face the work week head on."

Good Ole Wally-World....

You know why Wal Mart is such a HUGE and RICH corporation?!?! Because they now how to get more money out of you than you ever intend to spend in one trip! It doesn't stop there - they market not only to people our age, but even our two year olds!!! LOL Now how many parents do you think in one day use the "riding toys" at the entrance as a bribery tool in order to have a peaceful shopping trip? Hmmm - must admit that tonight I was one of those moms. It had been a long day, but I figured while I had spent the gasoline to go to the birthday party in Brandon, I might as well check out their WalMart - they always seem to have a better selection of children's clothes than ours' does...sure enough...our WalMart doesn't even have all of the fall selections in but their's had a LOT and was already picked over pretty good. I did find a couple of long sleeve tees, turtlenecks, and a couple of tees for Richard to wear next year. On the way out Richard talked me into Cheetohs (since he already had supper at the birthday party) and a ride in the jeep....hey, what can I say: a dollar and a half for Cheetohs and a ride on the jeep were well worth a peaceful trip to WalMart! Notice that he would not even let me hold his Cheetohs in case I decided to take them back. LOL Kuddos to the marketing folks at WalMart Headquarters - you definitely know how to get us.