She's GRADUATING!

18 years ago a beautiful baby girl entered our lives and changed our world. This amazing young woman I am proud to call daughter is GRADUATING high school! Today we went out about town to take her Senior pictures. It was a rather humid and mildly windy day, but we had fun! Here are a few of my favorites!

20 years ago

Twenty years ago today I walked down the aisle of a little church in Greenville, TX on the arm of my brother. Waiting at the end were my father, my friends, and the man of my dreams. My daddy performed our ceremony and other family and friends joined us in our celebration. We went to Six Flags for our honeymoon, then locked ourselves in our apartment for about a week. Good memories!!

The last photo taken before we changed and made our escape

Our honeymoon photo

I am looking forward to the next 20+ years with great anticipation as I know there are more grand adventures ahead!....and he is still the man of my dreams!

We have a Genius!

Sunday we went out to a friend's house to fellowship and had a wonderful time! While there we were introduced to several litters of kittens. We were encouraged to take one to hand raise since the other kitten had died. So we did! Jazmine, or Jazzy, is probably about 12 days old and looks very much like the other kitten but definitely has her own personality. She did have time with her momma so she will not get sick so easily. This morning we have been laughing. Kerrie needed to blow her nose and Jazzy was sitting in her lap. When she did Jazzy hissed at her....TWICE!! So funny! Then Kerrie got her school out and Jazzy decided to help.

"Hmmmmm.....I think the answer might be......"

Skizzo seems to like this kitten better. She has her eyes open and crawls to her crate door where he gets nose to nose with her and tries to paw at her to play. His paws are too big to fit through the grate though. It's sweet anyway! Tabby our cranky older cat is not at all appreciative of our new family member....but then again she's not appreciative of anything that doesn't center around her.

Back to training

My workouts have been rather sporadic lately as life just seems to keep happening and getting in my way! I did manage to get in nice mile long walk/run while on vacation over Easter time but have only gotten one other workout since being home again. This morning Lex and I decided to get some good sunshine and walking time in. So we put on our walking shoes and headed out to our road. I did almost a mile total of walking and jogging. Lex set her own pace and just enjoyed being out. After warming up a bit I started jogging. Usually I get to the end of our road, 1/10th of a mile, and am so out of breath I almost have to stop. Today however I not only made it to the stop sign, but rounded and came almost 1/2 way back up our road before feeling like I needed to walk it out a bit! I am sooooo excited!!! I have also been excited by the fact that even without working out, and my food choices not being the best some lately, the scales were not climbing! I really am getting healthier and feeling fantastic!

Sad

Our little kitten died this afternoon. She had seemed so strong and doing so well, but I think she was premature and the formula was too harsh for her system. She went from doing great to gone in about 12 hours. I consulted friends, researched, did everything I could to try to help her, but in the end just prayed that God would take away the pain I could tell she was in. God honored my prayer and she is healed. We will miss her greatly. She brought incredible to joy to our lives while she lived.

Hello out there!

10 weeks and 4 days into my 40 or so weeks of growth! I have a strong heartbeat and showed off my agility by kicking my legs and waving my arms while I was on camera!
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No, I'm not pregnant, but my daughter Lex is!! We are so VERY excited!!!! She is due about the first week of December. It's going to be a busy time as we prepare for not only the birth of our first Grandchild, but also for Russ' return home. Guess it's a good thing we had already decided to take December off from schooling!

Our joyous news is tempered slightly with news not so fun. Lex and Jonathan are separated and planning to divorce as soon as the baby is born. Texas will not allow divorce if the wife is pregnant with the husband's child. I won't go into the gory details, but will say that this decision did not come lightly and is for the best.

Be careful what you wish for

Our dog Missy decided to take a detour on her way to bed again last night. She always comes back, but this time Mykhal decided to follow her. She stopped to sniff at something then ran back to Mykhal and led him to the spot she had been sniffing. It was newborn kittens! The Momma no where in sight, two were already dead, but one was moving and making noise. It still had the placenta attached to the cord so the poor baby couldn't have been more than a few minutes to a couple hours old. Mykhal brought the baby home. I made a quick phone call to a good friend to find out what I should do to give this little thing the best chance of survival.
Now Mykhal began laughing at me. I couldn't imagine why so he shared. "Mom, you said you wanted a baby.....you just didn't specify a HUMAN baby!" Oh dear! But he's right, and I still have feedings every 2 hours or so and a bottom to wipe. Life is so not dull and I really MUST remember to be careful what I wish for!