saturdays at the zoo are fun!

Joe ism

Jason to Joe:  Hey joe, go start the coffee.  (He doesn't know how to do this)

joe:  ok

he runs out and turns around and says...  "I need money!"

Jason:  you need money to start the coffee?

Joe:  Yep! 

More from Alyssa Maisano... sooo cute!

Thank you Alyssa! 

Had a mini session done with Alyssa Maisano... OMG so cute!

She does mini sessions.  They are $75 and you get a disc with all of the images and a release.  A steal!

So, she sent me a sneak, actually she put it on her facebook but OH MY GOODNESS how cute are they?  :)
Here is her link.  

LOVE this picture

Photo was taken by Meg. :)

Not my normal post!

I have always had the ability to feel others pain in such a very real real way.  My husband always says that I feel real pain when a butterfly makes a misturn and flies into a window.  And then I would feel guilt for it.

I believe this wikipedia definition is a good one:

Empathic concern

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human beings are strongly motivated to be connected to others.^[1] In humans and other higher mammals, an impulse to care for offspring is almost certainly genetically hard-wired, although modifiable by circumstance.
Empathic concern refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of someone in need.^[2][3] These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion, soft-heartedness, and the like. Empathic concern is often and wrongly confused with empathy.
To empathize is to respond to another's perceived emotional state by experiencing feeling of a similar sort. Empathic concern or sympathy not only include empathizing, but also entails having a positive regard or a non-fleeting concern for the other person.^[4]


So, I find myself reading stories on the internet involving ill children.  My heart hurts.  I cry real tears.  I feel loss like it's my own.  I want to take that pain away and I want to help fundraise for the family that I know has done everything in their power, both financially and emotionally, to make the nightmare of their lives go away.

Most recently it was the loss of beautiful Layla Grace.

Layla was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma back in May of 2009 and in January it was a matter of when she would go forward and be with Jesus rather than if.

Layla went to dance with the angels yesterday morning.  Her parents had to watch her battle with this awful disease and had to watch her waste away.  And in her fathers words, it wasn't supposed to be like this.  My heart hurts.  I have cried.  I have felt a small portion of their pain as I don't think anyone who hasn't lost a child can never fully understand that horrible unfathomable situation.

And sadly, it got me to thinking.

This beautiful little girl did so much in her short life.  She rallied the troops and she had people praying for her all over the world.  Little Stellan had people all over the world writing his name in the sand.  He, is miraculously healed, praise the lord.

But what about all of those people that don't have the ability to write.  They don't have the power of the internet, twitter, blogs, facebook, words to rally those same troops?  Those parents are suffering the same very real, very agonizing pain.  How does one beautiful child's story go public when another's doesn't?

I don't have any answers.  And I suppose I am not expecting any.  But my empathic self hurts.  Hurts for each and every one of those babies, children and adults.  I have a very dear friend who is right now in Germany, undergoing an extreme EXTREME amount of pain during her treatment.  They are injecting something into 25 of her forty tumors.

I pray for her each and every day!  At least once every minute she passes through my mind and my heart.  She, too, has prayer warriors that lift her up.  I wish with all of my heart people could help her financially but she is way too proud to ever accept the help and well, she's remarkable!

anyway!
This is a rambling blog about cherishing moments.  Cherishing seconds.  Cherishing our chlidren, our friends, our spouses and our family.  It's about praying for those that we don't know... those that we know in our heart of hearts need it.  They are suffering right now and the prayer of a stranger might just be exactly what they need.

Now I lay me down to sleep...

Worldess Wednesday

 

Mamaw

So I mentioned in the last post that my mom had pneumonia.  I also mentioned that dad and I decided that Mom should come to Fort Worth to recuperate for a week.  Then one week turned into two.  Then two into Two and three days.  :-)  Well, the end of that two weeks and three days is here and I am sad.  The good news is that she is feeling better and doesn't get winded finishing a two word sentence!  YAY!  The bad news is that ... well, she's going home. 

It has been so nice having her here.  Things are easy with my mom.  She can finish my sentences.  We don't have to talk.  We can just be.  We do it all together.  It's easy. 

She has enjoyed "joe" time with him every morning.  I would go to work and she would spend about two hours with him and then take him to school.  Then she had the rest of the day to rest, to do projects, to do whatever SHE wanted.  Which is key.  When her life is on the go go go, she rarely has the opportunity to do what SHE wants to do.  That's not to say that she's doing everything she doesn't want to do...  but for two weeks and three days, she could really do anything she wanted to do.  I won't say I didn't cash in on that...  as she enjoys doing crafty projects...  and she loves to put things together.  So...  I definitely got the benefit of that.  We finished decorating my bathroom, we finished decorating the guest bedroom upstairs, and she even gets the colors and plaids that she loves.  (see, win win).  We pulled together Joe's bathroom and hung some pictures.  She would tell me where she wanted things and I would hang.  I definitely got the benefit of her being here in so so many ways. 

Joe has really gotten to teach  mamaw the lay of the land.  And she has had the opportunity to learn his ways and the ways of a boy.  I'm not sure who is going to have the harder time come Wednesday when she goes home.  I think it's going to be an adjustment for everyone.   No, I know it's going to be an adjustment for all of us. 

I know that the mother daughter relationship is special.  I know that no one knows her child better than a mother.  I have learned that more by becoming a mother.  But...  no one... NO ONE knows me like my mommy.  No one has the ability to call it like she sees it like my mom too...  and that's not always a great thing.  :)  but, no one loves me like she does either.  

Joe is going to miss his mamaw.  Mamaw is going to miss her joe joe.  and I am going to miss my best friend.  :-( 

Splitsville with my North Texas besties

So my mom was diagnosed with pneumonia again about three or so weeks ago.  The doctor told her that she was just doing too much and that she had to slow down.  (yeah right... mom slow down???)  ha!

So, when she got out of the hospital, Dad and I decided she would get more rest if she came on up here to Fort Worth.  Here she can do as much as she wants (within reason) but sit and rest and enjoy Joe and just be.  She can't sit and think of all the things she should be doing at home. :)

But with her being here, we also had the benefit of a babysitter.... at HER urging.  :)  But alas, our friends couldn't find babysitters for their kids.  And I was not about to make mom watch all five kids... that would be a feat of superhuman strength.  hA!

But, at the last minute, both friends were in fact able to get babsitters and we were back on.  We decided to go to Splitsville, which I had been wanting to do since it opened. 

 

Joe had been having a terroristic day!  Like seriously one of those days you decide why birth control is invented!  He was testing boundaries, throwing tantrums, throwing things, hitting, biting, swinging and swearing in toddler!  Like full on swearing.  (which was actually quite comical).  So, I was somewhat reluctant to leave mom with him, except that she was the only one that he seemed to want to be around.  It certainly wasn't his mommy or daddy!  

So off we went to meet up with our friends.  I drove there so that Jason could later drive home.  Aren't I smart?  :-D  And we were the first to arrive.  We walked in and a hostess stand is on the left and the bowling reservations are on the right.  The lanes are in various spots around the restaurant.  There are also bars strategically placed.  We were confused so I went back to the door openers and asked if they were my tour guide.  :) 

She quickly gave me the rundown.  There was no wait for a table but for bowling they were on a three hour (yes you read that right... ) three HOUR wait.  OYE!  We put in our names and got our table.  We had a table for eight but the hostess said something about if we wanted more room, to let our server know and she could turn the tables.  I didn't think anything of it...  but as she walked us up to this Vegas style round booth with ruched buttons...  I thought ... huh, cool!  Turns out that the booths swivel so that two can face each other... you can face the outside (which has a patio, fire pits, an outside lane and a pool table), the other booth, or the lane.  

It's a neat place though that has real food, a real bar, (or several of them), fairly reasonable wine (got a bottle of sterling for $31) and even has sushi.  yay!  

We felt like we were in an old Vegas movie.  :)  

 

This is three of us girls... hanging out in style.  

 

Meg gets around :::;wink wink::::  (meg and susan)

 

so photogenic, our meg!  

 

we did finally get a lane...  I think it was around 10:00 pm and I bowled one game (scored a 54 ... oye) and then let Lavonne take the second game.  :) 

 

smoochies

 

why yes... yes those are my nostrils, 80's hair and bloodshot eyes.  yay!  I'm so purty!  

It was a fun fun night.  Expensive... splitsville is not cheap... but it was fun. 

Fun and Fabulous Two

This past weekend we had a birthday party for Ryan, my friend's the Kerr's son was turning 2.

How did this happen? I swear that he was just turning 1.  Hard to believe that we have all been friends long enough to celebrate almost two whole rounds of birthdays with each other!

I am so blessed!

We had such fun at their house.  They brought in pizza's from Papa Murphy's Take and Bake Pizza... if you've never heard of them...  you pick them up uncooked, bring them home, and bake them yourself...  and they are REALLY really good.

The weather was perfect and the kids got to play on the swings 

 and a bounce house

they got to swing a pinata (Joe didn't but he watched and cashed in on the candy).

Ashlyn helped her brother with it.

Shelby carried her future husband around......

 

They ate lots of pizza, played and had cake!  yummy CAKE!

What a great party!  Thanks Kerr's!