Corn Street

Corn Street is a tiny dead-end street in Union, South Carolina, where Artie is from. His parents, brothers and sister all live on this street, which makes it very easy to see everyone when we go for a visit. There is another couple on the street, Cheryl & Kenny, who might as well be family.
Corn Street is a happenin' place. For only 4 homes (technically one actually has a Lockhart Hwy address, but who's counting), there is never a dull moment - although things have slowed down quite a bit since Ronnie Burris passed away last year. Ronnie is our niece, Bailey's, dad, and he also lived on the famous Corn Street. He was quite a character, and is greatly missed by all of us.
A Corn Street gathering is literally a street party. Since it's a dead-end, we can set up tables or water slides or whatever we want at the end of the street and have a big party. We've had cookouts, bonfires, Easter egg hunts, memorials, karaoke nights, you name it. There's always a ton of good food, a lot of laughs, and fun for the kids up to the grandparents.
Corn Street is legendary. Occasionally the police may have been called ...
One of my favorite Corn Street memories was a couple of Halloweens ago when we were telling ghost stories to all the kids (Logan, Bailey, Mackenzie and a whole gang of their friends), and then Monty, Artie's brother, ran out & scared the pooky out of the kids! I've never seen 8-10 year olds so scared in all my life.
Another good memory was when we were shooting fireworks, which we do every Christmas, and one of them flew in the door and burned a hole in my BRAND NEW velour track suit I had just gotten the day before for Christmas!

I am very blessed to have the Davis family for my in-laws. To me they are blood after all these years, and I always enjoy spending time on Corn Street with them. They make me laugh and relax and just enjoy good family time. And Logan loves to spend time with his cousins!

This is a typical Corn Street gathering. Tables, food, lots of family & friends.

And there is ALWAYS a bonfire! Logan likes to be the fire-keeper. He has been trained by Monty, which makes me a little nervous.

This was a rough night on Corn Street. We sent balloons up in the air as a memorial for Ronnie Burris. He was like the "Mayor of Corn Street," and he & Papoo (Artie's Dad) could tell you EVERY single thing that happened on that street and any others nearby. Now Papoo has to handle the street by himself. ;)

This was our annual Easter egg coloring event. We color eggs and then hide about 200 to 300 of them. The kids love it. Logan was sad this year he felt "too old" to participate, so he helped the youngest, Braylyn, to find her eggs.

The shady porch at Mumma & Papoo's (Artie's parents). This is the gossip spot and the point from which we survey all the goings-on.

This is the only traffic allowed on Corn Street during a "shindig." Mumma is pushing Braylyn around in her car. Since this photo, Braylyn now pushes Mumma around, or over. lol

This was karaoke time and the kids were playing musical chairs to some of Cheryl's karaoke music.

Logan & me at the Corn Street Luau. That was a lot of fun. Deann and I LOVE to theme our parties, don't we?

This is Artie's sister & brother, along with Patti's grand-daughter, Braylyn. I can't believe we are a GREAT-AUNT & UNCLE!

And here's Miss Cheryl leading the conga line. :)

No, Artie is not putting money in my shirt. We were having a great time here. Nobody throws a party like Corn Street, that's for sure.

Here are the Corn Street Kids - clean version.

And here they are - dirty version.

Looking forward to the next Corn Street Shindig!

Scrapbooking Beach Photos

I have finally finished a scrapbook of our 2007 family vacation - just me, Artie & Logan in Clearwater Beach. I will share some of my better pages with you here.

This photo is of Logan on the balcony of our hotel room, with the bay side of the island in the background. I bought a few postcards while we were there to use in my scrapbook. I purchased the die cut "Florida" at the Scrapbook Superstore in Sevierville. They have a lot of laser cut items. Looks are deceiving though. That one laser cut has 8 layers which have to be carefully stacked together and glued for that 3D look. I love this paper, which already looks like rays of sunshine. I didn't have to add much to the page because of the great paper.

This page is from the highlight of our trip, which was our visit to Discovery Cove in Orlando. We will never forget that experience! The best part of the day was swimming with the dolphins, which ended with a kiss. I tried to keep the page fairly simple because I thought the images were the star of the page. I mean, how often in life do you get to kiss a dolphin?

This page is one of my favorites. I used five different papers from the same line, and played off of the pinwheel design in the paper to add some pinwheel embellishments. The ribbon next to the photo is bright orange and picks up on the orange in the papers, as well. I also added some Stickles to the flowers and pinwheels on the white background paper. The photos are of Logan playing in the kids area at Pier 60, and I loved the "Fun in the Sun" embellishment, because that precisely described this moment in time.

First of all, I love these photos of Artie & Logan. I mean, come on, they are my two favorite subjects, for sure! I added a sepia tone to the photos before I printed them out. This gorgeous paper was a great background, because I do "Adore" them. I used a border punch to make the holes in the paper. I thought they looked like bubbles. And the bingo card just happened to contain the right dates for me to circle. What a great memory, watching the two of them together!

These two photos were taken at the two different hotels we stayed at during our trip, one in Orlando and one in Clearwater. I loved the fern effect of the felt sticker tape and thought it coordinated well with the photos. Logan looks so young here - he has certainly changed a lot in the past 4 years! I punched butterflies out of the same paper I used to mat Logan's photos. The felt word sticker says "Be Glad," and I am VERY glad to have such a wonderful, handsome son!

For this page, I played off the color of Logan's fluorescent green goggles. This beautiful beach paper has so many colors in it, but I think the green jumps out. I actually purchased the paper-pieced swimmer boy on ebay! I have bought many paper piecings on there because I have not mastered that art yet myself.

This page is one of my all-time favorites. Very simple, letting the photo take the lead. I used a sepia tone again on this photo, and it makes a very simple page with the muted tones of the paper and photo together. I love this photo and thought it deserved a page of its own.

"Oceans of Fun" - For some reason, I always have to take a photo UP the beach and DOWN the beach. I thought this page was a good way to display that beautiful scenery, plus it carried on the orange theme I used on so many pages of this scrapbook. It really seems like a sunny, happy book with all the bright colors and great memories!

We went to play mini-golf at a place called "Congo Golf & Gators." They had LIVE gators there you could feed with a stick and a string. We fed them hot dogs, of all things. The mini-golf course was awesome! It involved a crashed plane, a jungle boat, a few waterfalls, a cave, a giant snake, and of course, the live alligators. We are not very good at mini-golf, but it was a very fun outing!

The star of this page is probably the adorable paper piecing, "Let's Go to the Beach." For some reason the guy in the piecing reminded me of Artie - maybe it's the expression on his face. Again with the orange theme in the paper, and more adorable photos of LOGAN, of course.

This is just a fun page because of the paper and fish. It looks like water with the wavy lines and the swimmer - holding his nose like I do. This paper piecing came in the set with the other swimmer boy that I bought on ebay. The photos on this layout were from a giant shark slide that was set up at the pier. Logan loved it and had to do it over and over and over. It was fun for him, but very HOT for us standing out on the sand taking multiple photos. Isn't that what vacation is all about? The kids having fun and the parents following them around in the heat taking pictures? :)

Hope you enjoyed my pages. I'm sure most of you do much better work than this, but I'm proud of my scrapping. I sure enjoy it!

Plastic Surgery: Why I Love It & Why I Won't Do It Again (Part 2)

This is a continuation of a previous post:
WARNING: GRAPHIC PRE- AND POST-OP PHOTOS

Fast-forward about 3 years from my first plastic surgery to my gastric bypass surgery. I will write more about that experience in future posts, and you can scroll back in my archives to read my thoughts as I was recovering from that surgery. I was advised to wait about 18 months after the gastric bypass to have any plastic surgery procedures. This was in order to give my weight loss time to stabilize. So at about 15 months post-op, I went back to Dr. Lucas and said I want to get some of this flabby loose skin taken off from all the weight loss. He was as kind and helpful as ever - except he advised that I actually needed THREE surgeries to whip me into shape. The first procedure he recommends to all his post-gastric bypass patients is the lower body lift with tummy tuck. This procedure would basically cut me all the way around, like a belt, and pull up the lower body skin, pull down the upper body skin and cut out any excess in between. Sounded great to me. Sign me up, I said. It's a 7-8 hour surgery, he said. You'll need 2-3 weeks off work to recover. Well, I've got 10 days, I said, but I'm a trooper, let's do it anyway.
Meanwhile, as I waited for my surgery date to approach I saved my money (none of my plastics procedures were covered by health insurance),
So my big surgery day approached and I couldn't wait. Until about 2 days beforehand, when I started to panic and second-guess my decision. A lady on the surgery message boards that I followed actually DIED after her surgery, and that scared me. The morning of surgery, Mom was in the pre-op room with me and I was crying, saying I wasn't sure. Mom said, "It's not too late to put your clothes back on and walk out of here." But I didn't. I stayed. She was there with me at 5:30 that morning (and so was her boyfriend, Richard). Artie had to drop Logan off at school before he could join us.
I know you want to see pictures, and they are quite embarrassing. I have tried to crop out any private areas and still give you an idea of the procedure and results. These are my pre-op markup photos. The areas with magic marker are his cut marks. The green slashes are where he is removing the area entirely. I cannot believe I am putting these on the internet, BUT when I was researching my surgeries, I wanted to see exactly what I was in for!
Pre-op:

Still here? If you haven't passed out yet or thrown up, the story continues.
So I had my surgery, I survived by the grace of God, and I went home THAT SAME DAY, late in the evening. I had prepared by buying a lift chair at the advice of many of my surgery board friends. They advised I would not be able to get up and down on my own for a couple of weeks. This is a photo of Hannah, one of my nieces, playing in the lift chair.

I had my surgery on a Friday and had the whole next week off from work. I was in a pain medicine haze and thankfully had Artie home with me most of that week. Mom came and stayed with me when Artie had to work. It was an awful week. I was in a lot of pain, and took so much pain medicine that I started to hallucinate. I kept telling Lucy to get off of me when she was actually being boarded at the kennel that week and wasn't even here! I would wake up and not know where I was. This may have been in part because I had to sleep in that chair for 2-3 weeks. When I returned to work 10 days later, I could barely move. I wasn't supposed to be driving at all yet. (I did stop taking any pain meds before driving!) I somehow struggled through that week, but left early most days (against my boss' wishes). I was miserable and very emotional, crying and sad, regretting the surgery. I loved my new flatter stomach and how much weight-loss flabby skin was gone, but it was still a VERY MAJOR operation. I did not take nearly enough time off work, but that is unfortunately the nature of my job running a small law firm. When I am not at work there is no one to fill in for me or do my job. So these photos are about one week post-op and I am still quite swollen, but you can see a partial result.

Just when I thought I might be feeling better, part of my incision started to open up. To make a long story short, it became a large open wound, became infected several times, and still today, 5 months post-op, I have a small wound about the size of a pencil eraser that bleeds some days and drains clear fluid other days. And it is right where my waistband goes for pants, skirts, etc. Very uncomfortable and inconvenient. This is the wound at its largest and most painful:

So even though I now have a flat stomach, although I will never be "skinny" in this lifetime, and am wearing clothes 10-12 sizes smaller than I did before my gastric bypass and lower body lift, I would not do the lower body lift again. It was a major surgery and I couldn't take enough time off work to recover; therefore part of my wound opened up and became infected, and I spent months working and living with an open, infected wound. It drained me physically and emotionally, and in retrospect having a round belly wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

I'm sorry if this post grosses you out, or if you think I have humiliated myself with these photos. I want this blog to be honest and forthcoming, to share my experiences with you as best I can, and this was definitely a major part of the last year of my life. Thank God for bringing me through it and surrounding me with a loving family to see me through it. I love what plastic surgery can do for your body - it can make an amazing change in just a few hours. But I would not do it again. The other two parts of my three-part surgery plan will not be taking place. I still love Dr. Lucas and his staff. I am just done. For me, the plastic surgery ride is over.

A Vivid Dream

So Friday night I had one of those vivid dreams, the kind where you wake up confused and wondering how you got back to your bedroom, in your bed, because you could have sworn you were just .... somewhere else.
I actually woke up crying, and Artie was shaking me and saying "Kim, Kim?" I had dreamed that we were at an outdoor gospel concert somewhere in Halls. I recognized some landmarks of Halls, but there is no amphitheater in Halls like I saw in my dream. There were several groups singing, groups I remember from the Dunsmore days. Suddenly Dad was beside me, dressed in a suit like he was ready to sing. He took my hand (which he NEVER would have done in real life, so I should have known I was dreaming!) He started singing to me, and the background noise of the ongoing concert faded into the background. He was singing in his beautiful voice the words to "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus..." " ... Just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know thus sayeth the Lord." It was Dad's voice, clear as a bell. It was one of his suits that I remember. I don't know why he was holding my hand, but he was THERE! I mean it was like he was right beside me! He started to walk away, but I could still hear him singing very clearly. I started to cry and run after him in my dream, but he kept walking away. At one point he turned back to look at me, and he was still singing, but then he turned and kept walking away until he was out of sight. I think that's why I was crying when I woke up, because I was crying after him in the dream. I was so very sad when I woke up and realized it was a dream. It took me over an hour to go back to sleep and I still cried during that time. I'm crying now as I write this for you. It was just so real! I know others have had dreams like that. I felt like maybe he was trying to tell me something - like, DUH, Trust In Jesus! Right?!? As I finally drifted back off to sleep early Saturday morning, I felt/saw Mamaw standing at the foot of my bed. She was holding her purse, of all things, and was in a church dress. (She always carried her purse the same way, and she was holding it just that way). She didn't smile or cry or say anything to me. She held out her hand and I wanted to take it SO badly!!! I wanted her to take me to Dad, and to her, and to Jesus most of all. But then she turned her head toward Logan's room as if to remind me I had at least one very big reason to stay here. And when I thought of Logan, I didn't want to go with her anymore. It was such an emotional dream sequence and I've thought about it all weekend. I don't know why we have dreams or visions, or thoughts like these. I don't know why it's so hard to think of these loved ones. I know that Dad and Mamaw are both in heaven, along with many other loved ones who have passed on. They are so happy there, and I will see them soon enough. I just felt like sharing this with you. Maybe it's for someone else, too, besides me, who needs to be reminded to Trust In Jesus. Hopefully I'll have a few dreamless nights this week, or dream of sand dollars or sugar plums. I don't know if my heart can take another vivid dream like this one for a while.

New Prize Giveaway!!

I will be doing another prize giveaway on Thursday before the long luxurious Labor Day weekend! To enter just post a comment about which blog topics you enjoy the most: parenting, marriage, surgery, crafts, spiritual, or a variety of all. (Or offer your own suggestion(s) for new topics).!

The prize this time is a $50.00 Visa gift card, which can be used anywhere that you can use a credit card.
Happy reading

Plastic Surgery: Why I Love It & Why I Won't Do It Again (Part 1)

There are two confessions I must make before really digging into this post:
1. I have never been happy with my body; and
2. I watch a lot of reality television involving women to whom appearance is a #1 priority (i.e. Real Housewives; Kardashians)

So in reaction to #1 above, I take a cue from #2 above and think "hmmm. not happy with something about my body? Let's call the plastic surgeon!"

My first experience with plastic surgery was around 4 years ago. I was very overweight at the time, but the part of my body that bothered me the most was my abdomen. Logan was born via C-section. Anyone who has ever had a C-section knows that it requires cutting some of the muscles in your abdomen and they don't exactly "grow back together." Any weight that you fail to lose after pregnancy, or any that you gain thereafter, is going to hang over the C-section scar like a little (or big) kangaroo pouch. It's not an attractive thought or reality. I had this pouch and it grossed me out. I felt like a whale. I went to three different plastic surgeons to discuss any possible surgical remedies. The first one I went to was an older fellow, and he told me he thought he could help me out, but he was actually getting ready to retire and wanted to refer me to one of his partners. I went to another surgeon who treated me like I had the plague because I was overweight. I'll never forget sitting there naked on the exam table and him walking in and saying "Plastic surgery is not a treatment for obesity. You would have to lose a lot of weight before I would even consider seeing you again." He was a real meanie and I cried for days after that. Then I read online somewhere about Dr. Lucas and thought I'd give it one more try. I scheduled an appointment and with much trepidation went in for a consult. He examined me, treated me as if I were the only patient in the world, and said "Sure, I can help you with this!" And he did. He cut off 20 lbs. of fat in my abdomen and took away my kangaroo pouch for good. I loved him and his staff and how they treated me. I thought he hung the moon, and I was THRILLED with my first plastic surgery.
Until I got an infection in one of my drain sites.
Maybe you have had a lot of surgical experience and you know all these yucky little tidbits that they kind of gloss over in the pre-op speech. Like drains, for example. I had 2 drains running out of my lower abdomen for a few weeks after surgery. What that means exactly is that there were 2 plastic tubes running out of me into these little round clear bags. Blood & other bodily fluids drained into these little round bags and had to be emptied regularly. By me. Or Artie. Or whomever was handy. When I returned to work (much too soon), the drains had to be pinned to my clothes. One of the holes where the drain came out became infected. Guess what that means? It had to be cut open and then packed with little tiny shoestring-looking gauze twice a day. And that meant when new gauze was going in, the old gauze had to be pulled out. OWWWWCH! I ran a high fever, I felt horrible, and then it finally got better. My doctor was amazing throughout, even calling me from his vacay somewhere on a tropical island to check on me personally.
So eventually the nasty little memory of a drain site infection faded away and I was just happy with my new pouch-free tummy.

Next, I decided I needed my turkey neck worked on after I lost considerable weight. Since my double chins were down to a single now, I wanted the firm jawline of youth and thinness.

Well, said the doc, we can first try an office procedure, chin liposuction, and if you're not happy with the results, we can schedule a full chin lift later on. Sign me up, I said. I'll come one afternoon and we'll do it in the office and I'll go back to work the next day with a glorious chin.
It was about a 2.5 hour procedure, in the office, and was probably the most painful of any plastic surgeries. My jaws and neck hurt for weeks afterwards.

And the best part was I got to wear a "chin strap" (which is much more disgusting than it sounds-see photo proof!) for WEEKS afterwards. To work!! and to the store! And to bed! My boss was... let's say less than thrilled.

After about 4 weeks, though, I did have a much better jawline and chin. I still have wrinkles on my neck and they bother me, but guess what? They're staying.

My continued plastic surgery saga will be continued in a future post...

My Beloved Lucy

Lucy is my dog. She is a 4-year-old Papillon, and she has been mine since she was only 5 weeks old. I formerly owned her father, Scrappy, but I gave him away at Artie's insistence because we could never get him housetrained. He was a little doll! The couple that I gave Scrappy to promised me that I could have one of his first pups, so they called me when he sired his first litter. I chose Lucy right away. She was the smallest and was so cute with her "mismark" (only having one eye covered in brown fur instead of both eyes). I would never be able to use her as a show dog because of this. She is considered an imperfect Papillon for that reason, but I think it just makes her more adorable.

The first week I had her she almost died. Apparently toy breeds can have very low blood sugar when they are puppies, and she had a very scary bout with that. She became almost comatose. I called an emergency vet (it was Thanksgiving weekend) and they told me to try giving her honey. I put honey on my fingertip and put it in her mouth. After a few attempts at this, she finally started coming around again. It was scary!
She has lived in 3 different homes with us, and had a brief stay (for a few months) with my high-school friend, Robin, when Artie gave a "doggie ultimatum" and forced me to get rid of her. After he saw how very sad I was and how much I missed her, he eventually called Robin and got Lucy back for me. Robin was such an angel to let me have her back!!

Lucy is not a perfect dog. She begs for food constantly, goes crazy at the first sound of a crackling package (hoping for food), and still occasionally goes pee-pee in the house. She can't sleep in the bed with me because she has to stand on high alert at the foot of the bed and growl at any night sounds. She is a total pest anytime food is around. She jumps and begs and pleads and cries and will take food right off your fork if you accidentally, say, wave it around during conversation or such.
Artie really does not like Lucy. He has nicknames for her that are best not included in my blog. Her very presence in a room irritates him. But he puts up with her because he loves ME, and he knows I love HER.

And I certainly do LOVE her! She is waiting at the door for me when I get home from work. She jumps and dances and whines like I've been gone for days. She practically leaps into my arms when I bend over to pet her or pick her up. She follows me upstairs to change out of my work clothes. She follows me to the bathroom. She follows me everywhere I go for the rest of the night. She sits by my side in the recliner or on the couch, and if I sit outside, she is on the ottoman right in front of my feet. She licks me and wags her fluffy tail and generally just seems happy that I'm alive and present. If I'm sad, she can sense it and looks at me with her little beady brown eyes and wags and licks and wags and licks until I smile. She loves me, no matter what kind of mood I'm in or if I'm having a fat day or if my makeup is all rubbed off. She just loves me, and she is my beloved Lucy.

Pure Silliness

First of all, I have to say up front: I ADORED my grandmother! (We called her Mamaw here in the hills of Tennessee). She died in 1998 when I was a few weeks pregnant with Logan. I have always said the Lord gave me Logan when he took Mamaw because He knew I'd never survive it otherwise. I absolutely loved her like no other. She was my cheerleader, my voice of wisdom, a comedian, and a very bright & shining role model that I wish I had followed. I was her biggest fan.
The "silliness" of this post comes in because of the dress in this photo. Mamaw made this dress, and most of the other clothes she wore. Mom recently was going through some of her things and found this very dress. She gave it to me because she knows how close I was to Mamaw. The very first idea I had after she gave it to me was, "I wonder if I can fit into this dress? Wouldn't that make a cute picture?" I knew I had this photo of Mamaw in the dress. So .... I sucked in my tummy and I pulled and tugged and wiggled and squirmed and held my breath ... and voila!

Artie snapped a few photos and then had to pry me out of the dress. But for a few precious moments, I felt so close to her. Maybe because my breathing was cut off and I was that much closer to meeting her in heaven momentarily, OR maybe because she looked down from heaven and had a good laugh at my pure silliness.

Having a Spouse in College

As you may or may not know, my husband, Artie, is currently attending South College and working toward his BSN degree (Bachelor's of Science in Nursing). If he successfully completes his course load and passes the nursing exam at the end, he will be an RN when he is done. I very much encouraged him to do this, and am 100% supportive of him going back to school to better himself and to better provide for our family once he has finished school. However, it's not all blue skies & rose petals when you have a spouse in college.
This is a 3.5 to 4 year commitment, and he is about to complete his first year. The number of classes he can carry during each quarter determines how fast he can graduate. He goes year-round and has been averaging 3 courses per quarter. He also still works two full days per week at Mercy Hospital. He has to do this in order to keep our health insurance. God worked out a scheduling miracle when He allowed Artie to go to school PLUS work just enough hours to keep our insurance and pay for it out of his check.
So for the next 3.5 to 4 years, I am basically our only source of income. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Stress. I have a secure job and I show up every day like a good little soldier, but many days I definitely feel the stress of being the breadwinner. We have used all of our savings to help family members in need, so I don't have a cushion to fall back on and sometimes I feel like I'm walking a tightrope!
Besides finances, another issue is the study & homework time. That mostly all falls on Artie's shoulders, but it adds a lot of stress to him. And you know how stress "trickles" down to other family members... His huge homework load & study time also interferes with our travel activities. We have not made a trip to SC to see his family since Easter. Every time we plan a trip, he has some project or big test to prepare for and we can't go. He takes school very seriously and I am SO PROUD of the grades he has made - All A's so far except for one B! His hard work is definitely paying off.
One of my biggest issues with him going to school is probably jealousy. I have told him this, so it's not a big secret. While I'm slaving away at a very stressful job for 10-11 hours per day, he is going to school for 4 hours on three days per week and then has 3 afternoons free. He mostly uses this time for study and homework, but he will also walk over to the neighborhood pool, or on cold rainy days will nap on the couch or watch TV all afternoon. I get very jealous on those days. I know I shouldn't! I'm just being honest!
Going back to college at age 45 is not easy. At first he was very intimidated by the experience, but he has definitely adapted and is excelling. Watching him help take care of Dad when he was bedridden, I know Artie will make an excellent nurse. And he chose that degree because there is always a need for nurses and it should be a very secure field to work in.
We definitely approach this time in our lives with a team effort. I help him with homework or typing. He makes most of our dinners and keeps the house clean. We do everything together and talk about how we are feeling and how it is affecting our lives. We are very open if there are any issues to discuss. I believe this phase of our lives is making us even stronger. As our 25th anniversary approaches (December 6th), I am so proud of how we have learned to face and overcome each new challenge that married & family life brings. Of course, none of that would be possible without God. It was He who brought us together in the first place.
Artie gets his fall class schedule today and we are praying for a manageable course load. I'm always excited when a new quarter starts because I get to order books for him on Amazon and return his old ones for credit. Little things like that thrill me. (rolling my eyes)
I am so proud of a husband who is willing to go back to school at his age and prepare for a new career just to better himself and our family's future. And I am proud to be able to support our family financially while he does so. God has blessed us. Now I just need to stop thinking about the pool and the couch time! :)

Gift Card Winner

And the winner of the $25.00 Target gift card is ........... BILL BALLEW (Pig)!! Congratulations, Pig! I will mail the gift card to you this week, so keep an eye on the mailbox!
Our scientific method of choosing the winner was as follows: We printed all the names out on tiny pieces of paper, put them all into a bowl, and Logan drew out a name.
Thank all of you for commenting. I will be doing another (even bigger) giveaway very soon, so keep reading!

Blog Prize Giveaway

In an effort to see if anyone is actually reading my blog, I am having a blog prize giveaway. The prize is a $25.00 Target gift card. If you would like to be entered in the contest, please leave a comment below with your name & how to contact you. I will have Logan draw a name out of the "hat" on Sunday evening and will announce the winner on Monday. Happy Reading!

A Moment of Panic

Dictionary.com defines dementia as: "severe impairment or loss of intellectual capacity and personality integration, due to the loss of or damage to neurons in the brain."
Today I had a moment of panic as I thought about the scientific research indicating that Kristi & I each have a 50% chance of contracting Pick's Disease since Dad had it. Add to that statistic that our maternal grandmother died after a long Alzheimer's battle, and we may both end up demented (literally!). I have wondered many times since Dad was diagnosed if it was harder to watch him mentally disappear right before our eyes than it would have been to see him suffer some other type of disease. At least with the Pick's Disease, he did not appear to be in any great pain until the last few days. It was so hard for us to not be able to carry on conversations with him, or to wonder if he even recognized us any more. I still don't know which would be worse.
When Dad's disease first started out, his personality began to change. He would blurt out inappropriate words. He acted more and more like a misbehaving child, performing crazy antics for attention. He remembered all the words to his beloved gospel songs, but he didn't know how to be serious on stage anymore. He would wear the same clothes for days, even if they were dirty - when before he was METICULOUS about his clothing. This stage of the disease became worse & embarrassingly worse before his physical problems started or his memory left him.
The thought of someday being bedridden, curled up into a fetal position, and not knowing my own son, is absolutely terrifying to me. The thought of Artie having to care for me like a baby is also depressing and frightening. I watched my mom care for my dad and I know what a toll it took on her. The burden of being a caregiver is a great one, and so often under-appreciated.
Dad starting exhibiting the first signs of his disease around age 60 or 61. That means I may only have 15 good years left! Scary stuff. However, if I put it into perspective of how none of us are even promised the next hour, much less tomorrow, then it seems a little more bearable. I guess I just need to make the most of every day, every year, and when my time comes, be it through dementia or some other means, I will have lived the best life I could. Matthew 6:34: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (KJV)

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

I'm a little UHHHHB-SESSED with roosters. I guess you could call this another one of my many "collections." I have had rooster decor in my kitchen & dining room for a few years now, and my collection just keeps growing. The more unique they are, the better I like them.



I love all the color they bring to a space.



I have picked up roosters at yard sales, Cracker Barrel, Marshall's, Ross, on ebay and Amazon, and at flea markets. I even bought one at the beach this year and had to send it back with Kristi in her car because it wouldn't fit in my luggage to fly home.

Artie says it's time to start "replacing" some of the roosters instead of "adding" to the collection. I don't know what he's talking about! I mean, how could I part with any of these adorable little creatures?!?





If you see any beautiful roosters anywhere, (preferably the decorative kind and not the LIVE, CROWING kind) let me know.