Admissions

I went to the move "Admissions" Thursday night to the late, late showing, which is kind of a sneak viewing of the new films that come out on Friday....It was really cute and funny, but also dealt with some emotional topics, so it was a good mixture and very entertaining.

picture by: IMDb

But, what I was so excited to see were the movie posters they displayed in the hall advertising the new Hunger Games movie coming in November...they were beautiful and make me get really excited way too early for the next movie!!  But I thought I would share.

Big surprise, I went to Tyler, Not!!

I know that no one will be surprised that I went to Tyler Friday afternoon to see my granddaughter and her parents!!  But what made this visit a little different and really fantastic for me, is that now that we have Respite care for Aileen, I could leave right after work at noon and know that her caregiver would be at the house waiting for her bus and then would take care of her all evening until Alan got home and could take over!!  I have never been able to do this before!!  Usually I have to take Aileen with me, not that that is not wonderful too, but it is a little more stressful and because I have to take care of her, I'm not able to help Allison as much, or help with Charlotte as much as I would like to!  So this trip was almost like a holiday!!  And I loved every minute of it!!

Because Easter is almost here, I had to go to Gymboree, my favorite baby clothes store, and pick out a couple of Easter Dresses....and can I tell you people, it was a miracle I only bought 2, but of course I had to get matching shoes and socks to go with he-he, it was so much fun.  And then because I knew we were going to go to the park, I just had to get her some stylin' sun glasses!!  Happy Easter Charlotte!!

And because I hadn't done my walking yet, Allison and I planned that we would take Charlotte to the park and walk together, which we did and Charlotte was too much fun!!

 

She is just too dang cute!!  Makes me smile anytime I see her in person or her in pictures!!

But this is how I love it most.....

Hail, Hail, go away......

Here in Texas we have been having awesome weather while all the rest of the country is having snow, snow, and more snow.  The other day I saw on the News that Austin had a hail storm and when they showed pictures it looked like it had snowed there was so much hail on the ground.  And I was surprised!

Well, I'm not anymore.  I went to Tyler Friday to help my daughter and see my granddaughter and ended up staying the night and getting up early this morning to drive home.  About 40 minutes into the trip home it started getting darker and darker, then all of a sudden there were rain drops, then all of a sudden hail and I don't mean just a little hail I mean pounding flash flood type of hailing....so much so that all the traffic on the highway pulled over to the side of the road and tried to get under highway passes with their cars and trucks. I really thought I would have a broken windshield before it was all over!!  and after 10 - 15 minutes when it was all over....you would have thought it had snowed 3 inches....but it was much more dangerous because your car tires were having to break through solid ice!

 

I hope I never have to go through that again.  But I am very grateful for Heavenly Father's protection, and that the car appears to be o.k., and that I made it home safely!

I've been to some baby showers.....

We have had a couple of baby showers in our Ward/Church the last couple of weeks and I love any excuse to go to a party....but I espcially love baby showers!

Last week, there was a shower for a fairly new convert to our church who had a late in life surprise!!  Jeannine Tshimpangila is having a boy, and she is so excited, even though all her children are grown and in college or the military right now.  It was fun to be with her!

Back L to R:  Rebecca Albright, Kristen Murphy, Dana Wurz, Caitlin Thompson,
Shanita Hepworth
Front L to R: Jeannine Tshimpangila; Betty Willden, and and Jeannine's daugher.

Me; Jeannine, and Betty Willden.

Quite a few more came then who are pictured here (Yensy Willden, Shelby Denti, Lori Wagley, Yamilla Pruitt, Theresa Gammons to name a few), but I took these before everything started!!  The food was yummy, the company grand, and she got a lot of fun things.

The shower today, was a shower for one of the young mother's in our Ward/Church who works with the young women!  And I adore Karin Havens who hosted the party!  Ashley Leaupepe had a baby girl and she always has her dressed so cute, especially this last Sunday for St. Patrick's Day!!  She had on a cute green dress, a fun green bow in her hair and green St. Patty's day tights!  It was great!

Karin Havens and Ashley

Front L to R: Kristie Jenson, Karin Havens, Amber Allen
Back L to R: Shelby Denti, Aleta Allen, Yensy Willden, Ashley Leaupepe,
Barbara Clay, and Bessie Treber  (me not pictured!!)

Some sisters left before I got the picture taken (Mirta Brown and I think someone else), but once again, the food was amazing, the visiting and laughter awesome, and the gifts were great and I'm sure appreciated by this new mother!!

Biggest Loser-Charlotte Edition-Week 7

This week, I'm really excited I'm not going to lie, because I broke out the 2 lbs a week plateau I was on.  I lost 5 lbs for week 7 for a total of 36 lbs!!

Alan lost 4 lbs and is down 57 lbs!!

We just have to keep reminding ourselves why we are doing this!! 

Miss Charlotte in her swing wearing her Jazz onsie!!

And I have to thank my son-in-law for all the time and effort he is spending on us - keeping us motivated, working out or exercise programs, checking up on us every day, and his willingness to come and work out with us!  We love you son!  You are truly amazing!

St. Patty's day!!

Last Sunday was St. Patricks Day!  I don't know if we have any Irish in us, but we always have fun decorating the house for the holiday, and when everyone was in school it was always fun to wear green so you didn't get pinched!  This year, Aileen got a visit from a Leprechaun at her Day Care Facility!  How great is that!  And her face looks like she is saying...."Hey buddy, where is your pot of gold?"  How fun that they took pictures and sent one home for me!!  She really does have a good place to go and socialize, and be taken care of while I work!  I'm grateful to them every day!!

And here is Aileen with her Adult day care workers!!

 

Thanks every one for you patience and compassion!!

 

My Dad.....

My Dad is pretty amazing!  And I''m so grateful that I have the privilege of being his daughter!  But last Saturday was scary!  We got a call at 4:00 am from Barbara saying that Dad felt like he was having a heart attack again, and they were headed to the Emergency room and could Alan and Bishop Willden come and give him a blessing!  The good news is, after the tests, they determined that it wasn't a heart attack, so that's good I guess, but what was causing the pain, that felt like a heart attack??  They said he had a mini stroke and that some of the pain could be from an ulcer....  Neither one of those things make me feel any better, because in fact my mother had several mini strokes until she had the stroke that killed her.  And she also had an ulcer that burst open when they tried to go in and fix it, which was the surgery right before the last one that she never came home from!!  Ever since a couple of years ago with his heart attack and kidney stones and high blood pressure, and erratic heart beating he really has never recovered!!  And it concerns me.  And my biggest fear is that he is not going to be with us much longer.....so we have been trying to not let opportunities to spend time together go...and we are trying to make the most of our time with him on earth!!

So, the day that my dad was in the emergency room so early in the morning, was Aileen's birthday party and even though they had released him, I knew he was so weak and needed to be home in bed resting that I never expected him to come to the birthday party!  But he did, and I was so happy he got to see his great granddaughter again.  He was so weak that he did not feel like he could hold her, but he reached up and held her hand and loved on her.  It was a tender moment and it will be forever a tender memory!!

Love you Daddy!!