Peaks and Valleys

Oh terrible two's....why have you arrived at my house early? And uninvited at that! Owen has welcomed you into our home and he has become a liability when we go out in public!!

I went downtown to the courthouse to file our mortgage stuff from our re-fi and Owen screamed bloody murder the whole time!! I'm not exaggerating people! And the courthouse echos! Finally a lady in the office felt so bad for me, she came out and got my paperwork for me and worked on it while I kept him outside. Not one of my finer moments.

Then we stopped at the post office to get stamps and Owen walks in with a huge smile on his face and an old man comes up and says "I bet he never stops smiling!"

Yeah, he's smiling!! He made his mother look like a complete idiot! That's enough to make any two year old smile! I keep trying to remind myself that Preston was like this too, but my memory fades so quickly when it comes to bad things!! That's why I keep having children....hoping the next one will be our golden child. They say third times a charm right??

On the other hand we have Preston who just turned 4. He has finally calmed down. It's a good thing because you would need to visit me in the Looney Bin if both kids decided to be terrible together!! Preston is loving preschool. He is a typical boy though and stays hush hush on what's he does there. I always ask and he always says "We did nothing." What a boy!

As I go along on this mothering journey, I am beginning to realize that there are peaks and valleys. It's the peaks that get you through the valleys. Last night Preston and I had our first "date." I took him to our Fall Festival in downtown Noblesville and we ate hot dogs and chips and pop(Preston declared it was the best meal ever!) and went on a hayride and did a little trick or treating. It was definitely a peak for me that I needed. To be reminded of the little people they are who are just wanting to be shown some love and attention. And to show us how great they are!

I know Owen's time will come....but I'm just not there yet!! :)

I'm in Houston!!

(view from our hotel)
Hey everyone....guess I got my wish to take a vacation! Except this is a vacation with a purpose. My mom and I are down here in Houston to spend some time with Sara and Chuck. It was a really last minute thing to decide to come, but I'm so glad we did.

Chuck and Sara are doing good but Sara said it's been great having some support here for her. It is really hard to do be on your own down here. That's why we came. I can only imagine if it were me how much I would need the support of others in order to get through this trying time.

We got to visit the MD Anderson Cancer center earlier this week. All I can say is WOW!!! It's not really one hospital, it is at least 5 different giant buildings that make up the medical center. You can really tell that they are receiving better care here. The medical center is on the cutting edge of things. Chuck said he is impressed because he feels like they really know who he is and have taken an interest in his case. They seem to have a great bedside manor.

Chuck started chemo again yesterday and will take it until Friday. It's been pretty intense for him and he has not been feeling very good at all. After taking chemo, he will probably lose his hair so a bunch of his friends sent him different hats to wear! Sara and Chuck have some great friends down in Tampa.

I am leaving Houston on Saturday so that I can get home in time for Preston's birthday. He will be celebrating 4 years on Sunday. Wes is holding down the fort while I'm gone (isn't he amazing?) and is even attempting to make a Sonic the Hedgehog cake for P's birthday. Now that is ambition!! I'm hoping he doesn't end up figuring out he really doesn't need me anymore, but when I call the kids are up to their normal antics so I'm sure by the time I get home, he will be ready!!

Please keep Sara and Chuck in your prayers. Chuck will be doing chemo for the next 2 months and then they will be doing scans to see if the chemo is shrinking his tumors in the liver. This is what we are praying for!

Love to all!

It's Official......

Preston, Owen and BOY #3
What a band of brothers they will be
When you see them running, proceed with care
Say a prayer for their kind old mother who will not have brushed her hair

Update on Chuck

Because I'm the younger sister and we all know sister's are obnoxious, I wanted to post a funny picture of Chuck. This was from Lindsay's wedding and Chuck was doing a sexy walk for Wes who was taking pictures. Hmmm...should I be worried? I think so.

If only it was a video...........

Anyways, I wanted to update everyone on what's going on with Chuck. He has had some setbacks this past month. He has been having a lot of pain in his side. They took a scan to see how the cancer was doing and to see what was causing his pain. They found that he had at least two tumors on his liver. They also saw that there was still cancer present so they have changed him to stage 4 cancer.

They wanted to operate on his liver but Sara and Chuck were about fed up with the Tampa hospital so they decided they wanted to find the best care possible for Chuck. They found a hospital in TX, MD Anderson, that is on the cutting edge of cancer treatment for the colon. After waiting for about 2 weeks (which was WAY TOO LONG!!) they found out that this Friday they will have their first appts. at the medical center in TX. Another blessing is that the Air Force will be paying for everything, including their lodging.

Please continue to keep Chuck and Sara in your prayers. They are such great people and I hate to see them going through trial after trial. They are staying strong though and staying close to each other. Just pray for their strength to continue!! I will keep you posted as much as I can and hopefully I was accurate on all my details here!!

First Day of Preschool!

The day has finally arrived. Preston went to his first day of preschool today. And Wes and I didn't cry!!! He went right in and sat down and started coloring. At one point he said "Bye Mom!" Can't get any more obvious than that that my role in his life is diminishing. But that's okay. I know that is the way that the life cycle goes.

This is when he told me to beat it. I laughed when I looked at this picture....look at Preston's picture and this other girls' picture. There's your proof that girls master things earlier than boys!

Mommy needs some more sleep! I'm beginning to think that being well-rested is just a farce.

I did chuckle to myself when I realized that Preston was the only kid that didn't have a backpack with a Disney character or some other character on it. I guess that's what happens when your parents are cheapskates!! He didn't seem to notice, but we all know the time will come!

Pictures from Washington DC

Vacation Came Quick......

Okay. I feel a little bit sheepish. I wrote my rant about vacations while kind of forgetting that we were going on vacation the next day. OOPS. Blame it on pregnancy brain. This past weekend, Wes, Preston and I piled in the car and drove to Washington DC to attend the Restoring Honor rally. We met my parents there and shared a hotel room. We decided to leave Owen at home in IN with Wes' parents because we thought the pace of the weekend would not be fun for him. But don't tell him, he still thinks we went out to get dinner and it just took a really really long time.

I was so proud of Wes because he drove us through 6 states in one day!! (We hit W. VA twice for some reason!) I told him we should start a book of states that we had visited and make it our goal to hit all 50 states. He didn't seem as excited as me. Maybe the thought of traveling to Alaska doesn't give him the same thrill that it gives me! But he's a good sport so maybe I can convince him. The drive was really great and a nice distraction from our route that we have been taking to FL lately.

One of our friends told us that we must be political activists since we travelled all of the way to DC just for a rally. At first, I was like "Are we really activists?" I'm still not sure what I would label us, but here's where we're at:

We are concerned that our country is going in a direction that is going to be a detriment to our children. I won't go into all of the politics because for me, it's not about that. I just don't want to tell Preston and Owen and our future children that Wes and I could have stood up in order to change the way that the country was going but we didn't because we were too busy or too scared. I want to leave them a country that is better off for us being a part of it. So, that's it. That's my politics in a nutshell. I will not let my politics come between people that are in my life though. But when the opportunity comes up for me to take a stand on something, I will do it.

The rally we attended was so encouraging. First of all, we met some of the nicest people I have ever met!! We had to wait in a line for 45 minutes just to buy our Metro ticket and everyone had such a great attitude about it. There was actually an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the people at the rally were respectful, kind and left the Mall in better shape than it had been when we came to it. I thought that was really cool!

The biggest message I gained from the rally was that politics and government are not going to fix things in our country. WE are going to fix things. If we want our country to be better, WE need to become better people. If everyone were to commit to the values: Faith, Hope and Charity we could bring our country to a better place. I loved this message because I find politics so divisive. Focusing on becoming better citizens instead of politics can change things. 500,000 were there at the rally and many more watched it on TV so I'm hoping that a REAL CHANGE can come to our country. That's what I pray for.

Check out the next post with pictures from our trip!