What? June is almost over?

I am relaxing in my living room multi-tasking! Watching the Braves who are beating the Yankees...4-0 in the 9th inning...life is good...not so much that the Braves are winning...but the Yankees are losing!

Kailie, my 15 year old got her learner's permit today. WOW! It amazes me sometimes how fast life goes by. It truly feels like she was just born, that Rusty and I were beginning our parenting adventure. I was almost 24 when Kailie was born...just a child myself. (I can say that now since I am quickly approaching the 40 yr mark...but not for another year and 5 months)

Summer vacation is going by quickly. Since we took our unplanned trip to Florida to visit dad, who at this time is doing well, June is almost over. July will be busy with our vacation...then school restarts August 10.

I am very fortunate because I will be taking my annual trip up north this year! On September 16th I will be boarding a plane and heading to Rhode Island. I will try not to wish the summer away...but I am really looking forward to this trip.

Florida Day #2

The girls and I arrived at my dad's house Tuesday afternoon. We made a quick stop in Orlando to visit my niece at Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital. She was doing great and should be home tomorrow. (Friday)

I am enjoying my visit with dad. He looks good, but is very tired. This last go 'round with his heart has really been tough.

Emily is spending as much time in the pool as possible and Kailie is still keeping up with her summer school work. Emily has cousins her age to play with, but unfortunately Kailie doesn't. I am planning on taking Kailie to the mall later for a little while to get her out of the house. She is bummed because her friends back home have made some plans to go see a concert and she will not be able to attend since we are out of town...not that I was going to let her go anyway. Oh Well. It's tough being 15 I guess...I just don't remember, it was a very long time ago!

Another Crazy Day!

As I sip on cup of coffee #3, the monkey bread is in the oven, Rusty and Kailie are still sleeping and Emily is watching some highly educational show on TV (yeah, right!) I am getting myself psyched up for another day spent at Brenau University in Gainseville, Ga. After months of instructions, days of rehearsing....it is show time. Kailie is in 2 shows today and 1 tomorrow...Emily is in 1 show today. Me being the crazy person I am volunteered for 2 of the shows. I will be outside, in the Georgia heat, and probably a thunderstorm or two, selling T-shirts or refreshments. What was I thinking?

At this time, my father is still in the hospital. He is doing better and hopes to be out of there today. We were thinking that he would have been discharged on Friday, but his heart had other plans. So we transfer the hopes on to today! Only time will tell.

I feel guilty when I wish time away...but I wish it was Tuesday. The girls and I will be heading down to spend some time with him. The drive is long and tedious...but it will be worth it.

Not that I think my friend Mari will read this...but just in case she does, I wanted to tell her "THANK YOU!" I appreciate you helping me figure out my schedule so I can go see my dad! I work with the best bunch of nurses and doctors anyone could ever ask for!

Well, the monkey bread is done. Time to go wake up the rest of the family so we can have breakfast together! Then it's off to the recital!

It's a God Thing.

If you ever wondered if God exists...the answer is YES!!
My father was supposed to be visiting us in Georgia this week to attend the girls' dance recital, but he had to cancel the trip for health reasons. He called the other evening to let me know that he needed to change his plans. He needed to have one of his carotid arteries cleaned. (he had one side done 4 years ago) He sounded disappointed, but of course we understood. Dad was scheduled to have a CT yesterday to determine how they would handle the issue with his carotid...cut out the blockage, or put in a stint. I touched base with my sister Colleen via text message to see if they had decided anything yet, and at that time they were still waiting for the results. This was about 5 pm. Approximately one hour later Colleen called to say that Dad was on his way to the hospital in an ambulance and Karen (my other sister) was right behind them.


My father has a VERY long history of cardiovascular disease...he had his first major heart attack when he was a whopping 38 years old so he knows when things are not right. He was experiencing chest pain and called 911, then Karen to let her know. The ambulance was there by the time Karen arrived...which is pretty fast considering she only lives 1 street over.


He spent last night in the hospital and his labs were too goofy this morning to let him go home...instead they brought him to the cath lab....and that is where he is at this moment. Karen actually works at the cath lab so I can call at anytime to get an update and not worry about HIPPA...thank you very much.


Why is this a God thing? He was supposed to drive to my house yesterday which is a 9 hour drive. Had he actually been on the road he may have ignored his pain and kept on driving. Instead, because he needed to have his carotid taken care of, sooner rather than later, he was home close to his doctors that know him.

Let the Games Begin

Today starts the beginning of recital weekend....yes a 5 day weekend. Starting today I get to drive the girls back and forth to Brenau University in Gainseville, Ga for recital rehearsal....the schedule is as follows: Kailie: rehearsal Wed. 5:30 pm (and it will only last about 30 min.) Tomorrow Kailie has rehearsal from 2:45-6:30....did I mention summer school starts today? So in between running back and forth for rehearsals, Kailie needs to log onto summer school...(yes, it is online) She will complete a semester's worth of work in 23 days! (for 2 classes)

But let's not forget that I will need to bring Emily for her rehearsal on Friday @ 2:30pm and then she and Kailie both have finale rehearsal until 7ish.

The shows are Saturday 2:30pm, 6:30pm the Sunday 2:30 pm. It is a little stressful at the moment, but once the music begins and I get to watch my girls dance...All the craziness of running around is worth it.

So off I go....

What the heck am I doing?

OK, so I really want to write a book...but I figured this is a good place to start. Babbling about random things that are important to me may help me improve my writing skills.
I have never been known for my grammatical expertise, just ask my husband that willingly helped proof read ALL my papers for nursing school.

I have become a facebook fanatic over the past 10 months. I have caught up with people that were so important to me decades ago, people I swore I would always stay in touch with. These rekindled relationships has brought back floods of memories from days gone by....and the scary thought of how old I was when I met these friends...what we were doing. These thoughts are scary because I now have a 15 year old daughter.....YIKES!
Those folks were such an integral part of my life then and helped me to become the person I am now.
However, I do have to confess that the yearbook from my senior year is not too far away...most names are familiar, but profile pictures of classmates are not, granted, I graduated from high school over 20 years ago and much like myself, people have changed.

About 6 months ago while sitting at T.F. Green airport in Rhode Island with my father and sister waiting for my flight back to Georgia, I said to my father, "I never asked mom how old she was when she stopped coloring her hair." "Late 30's." was his reply. I AM THERE!!! No more extraordinarily expensive trips to the hair salon! No more "chats" with Miss Clairol. This 38 year old mother of 2 was going natural! Shortly after that trip up north, which was unfortunately for my Aunt Maureen's funeral, I cut my hair very short and stopped coloring it. It took about 4 months for all the unnatural color to grow out and the all natural white/silver to come in.

What I find to be most amusing about this chapter of my life is this.....
My mom had beautiful hair. It was bright white and looked wonderful with her skin. So often she would come home from wherever she had been and say "I got another compliment on my hair." My sisters and I would roll our eyes. But I must admit that since I have let my hair turn white, I too get complimented on it. Much more frequently than I ever did with the long frizzy Miss Clairol, part red, part orange, part kind of pink (because what color do you get when you mix white with red) hair. When I told my sisters about all the compliments I get, they laugh.

One day in April I was at my daughter's dance class and had to walk across the studio floor to get something from her teacher. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror that made up the front wall, and for a brief moment, I thought my mom was in the room. Of course the thought only lasted a second, but it was odd. My mom passed away January 31, 2007 after battling lung cancer for 11 months. That was my one worry about letting my hair go natural; looking at myself everyday in the mirror and seeing my mom stare back at me. Not that I would not love to see my mom again, but I was afraid that seeing my reflection would be a daily reminder of the fact that I can't see her again. At least not for awhile.

Well, I think I have rambled on enough for my first post....until next time when random thoughts pop into my head.