Betty's 80th

Co-workers from Harris Hospital

Betty with grandkids and great-grandkids

the whole family minus Tucker

Last month I was so glad to go to Fort Worth to celebrate Betty's 80th birthday! Anybody who knows me well has heard me talk about Betty. She is one of the dearest friends I have and has been for 22 years! We worked together at Harris Hospital in downtown Fort Worth. I was just 18 when we met and we developed a great friendship. We have seen many movies together, enjoyed all kinds of food together, been on road trips, shared stories of our families, prayed for each other, and have laughed so much. Her love for Jesus and God's Word inspired me early on in our friendship to want to know Him more. I have learned so much about life as well as loving and serving God and others through my friendship with her. She is the kind of person who knows how to bring out the best in anyone.

I've been blessed to know all 3 of her kids, watch her grandkids grow up and get married and have kids of their own. It is maybe what some would call an unlikely friendship, since there is a 40 year age difference, but I'm thankful to God for our friendship all of these years and that we have been able to maintain it despite living hundreds and even thousands of miles from each other for a good portion of the time we've known each other.

Thoughts on the book "Plan B"

One of the most impactful books I've ever read is a book called "Plan B" by Pete Wilson. I actually read it several months ago and have been slowly journaling about it over the past few months. So, I thought that I would post about something from the book that affected me for the next several weeks.

The subtitle of the book is "What do you do when God doesn't show up the way you thought he would". It's essentially about any circumstance that may have changed one's life in some capacity: loss of job, loss of loved one, miscarriage, illness, etc.

Of course for us, the major life-changing circumstance was Micah's diagnosis of Tuberous Sclerosis. It changed the direction of our lives and showed us that we don't always know what God has in store, even if we plan in certain ways and think we know.

So here are the first two quotes:
"Our trials of life seem to chip away at us, leaving us exhausted, confused, and vunerable. We resign ourselves to the fact that things simply are the way they are and there is no hope that they will ever be any different. Feeling hopeless, we either run, taking things into our own hands, or we give up instead of waiting on God to act."

"Control is an illusion-we don't like being reminded of that. We want to win, be right, and do it our way-this powerful desire leaks into our marriages, our jobs, our parenting. The only thing you do control is how you respond to your disappointments and your unexpected obstacles. You can allow the river of fear, anger, and disappointment to just rage-that will affect every relationship you touch, every job, every plan you dream."

I can say that I haven't always responded well to the disappointments and unexpected obstacles. I think I am continually learning how to deal with fear and anger. I think that I have learned over the past 5 and a half years that giving up control is a process and a continual way of growing in my faith.

Fun Conversations

Last night after Gabriel's bath I was commenting on how long his fingernails and toenails were. He said "My nose is getting long too."

"Are you Pinocchio?" I said, realizing he doesn't even know who that is.

"NO! I not nocchio!"


We have not planted our garden yet because it has been too muddy from all the rain. Tonight Gabriel informed us that in his garden he is going to plant tomatoes, cantelope, hamburgers, and a taco tree. Sounds tasty to me!

Mother's Day past and present

May 2011

getting both to look at the camera is rare

travel mug & coffee!





May 2009 baby dedication day & Mother's day

Micah 2005 with some of my favorite treats

I know I missed posting last week and didn't keep my word of posting at least once a week...maybe I'll make up for it this week. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of past mother's day (the boys' first mother's day pics and this year). The last one of Micah "holding" my treats is so cute. We had to prop him up for the pic. Wayne found some of my favorite treats; cream of wheat was expensive in San Francisco, so we didn't buy it much!

In 2009, I think I'm wearing my Mother's Day gift. It was baby dedication day at our church. This year, I got a nice Starbuck's travel mug and one of my favorite Starbuck's coffee blends, Gold Coast. It's in two plastic containers because Micah immediately carried the bag of coffee off, threw it on the ground, and it busted. Those bags are usually a little sturdier than that. I think it spilled about $1.50 worth of coffee!

I tried to get a picture with both of them, and you see what came of it. And just ignore that weird pose of the one with Gabriel and me. I was trying to hold on to him and keep my balance, thus the strange angle of my arm against the tree. You probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out!

We missed celebrating Mother's Day with either of our mothers. For now, UAFS has commencement on Mother's Day weekend, and that is Wayne's big responsiblity so we cannot travel on that weekend. I had a good Mother's Day. It was so cute to watch Gabriel. He was so excited to bring me my gift that morning, though I think he thought he was going to get a "presinent" because Wayne kept coaching him "Don't open it, Gabriel. Just take it to Mommy."

I will say these are challenging days with Gabriel being in the trying twos (I hate to say terrible), with temper tantrums, and really wanting to assert his will. Micah has been doing much better with his behavior, but is very much in a don't-want-to-be-around-Gabriel stage. It makes life challenging because Gabriel can be a little attention hog and if Micah is sitting with one of us and Gabriel comes near, he will just go away. Micah really enjoys one on one attention and it's just not easy to do that right now.

Even with the challenges, I'm so thankful for my boys and love them more than I can say. One of my dearest friends in the world has been pregnant twice and miscarried both times, the second one was lost in the 2nd trimester. She has not been able to get pregnant again. I interacted with two families over the weekend who have both lost a child in the last year. One was a 2 year old boy with leukemia and the other was a 5 year old girl who died suddenly from brain cancer that they didn't even know was there. It certainly gives me perspective to think "Yes, some moments and days are frustrating and very draining with my boys, but at least I have them and I need to treasure these days no matter how difficult."

Gabriel's chattering

It's been so fun and fascinating to watch Gabriel's language develop. Since we haven't been able to see that with Micah, it's been really interesting with Gabriel...just amazing how much he picks up from people talking, TV, and from other kids. He's pretty much speaking in complete sentences and even starting to ask questions like "What are you doing, Momma?" or "What are you making?"

We have a rosebush in front of our house right beside the garage. For a couple of weeks he wanted to stop and smell them every time we got into or out of the car. And he would want me to stop and smell them too. He said they smell like strawberries and for a couple of days he

was calling them strawberry roses. The other day I was making chocolate chip cookies and he said "What's that?"

I said "It's flour."

"Like the roses, Momma?"

"No, it's a different kind of flour."

He has picked things up from TV that I have heard him say out of the blue: "like a good neighbor... (State Farm...)", "ABCnews.com", and last week in Wal-Mart I happened to pass the yogurt section and commented about Activia and he started singing very loudly "Activia!!!" over and over. A while back we were at the Fort Smith Museum of History and there were pictures of the presidential inauguration and he pointed and said "Obama!"

He is already starting to tell us things that Micah wants or doesn't want which sometimes is good and not so good at other times. He also knows what all the traffic lights mean. He will ask "What red light means, Momma? What green light means? What yellow light means?" He knows the answers and if I happen to turn right on red, he notices and will say "Momma, you're supposed to stop!"

I could've included more, but that's a good start for now. You never know what that boy will say!