Under Reconstruction

Meet Frank.

Frank found us about six weeks ago. The boy's love having Frank around. I had just bought new cushions for the patio furniture. The Princess does not enjoy cat hair on her chairs! Anyway, it appears Frank is sticking around, so I thought I should introduce him. (Zach came up with the name...it was either Frank or....wait for it............Jim)

Another journey begins...

please remember Nathan and his family, as well as Dr. Jones , in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow. Nathan's surgery begins at 11 a.m. As I read through Molly's thoughts and experiences, I'm taken back in time and am surprised at how anxious I feel as I read.

On another note, Nicholas' face/teeth have healed just fine. I was surprised that there wasn't more bruising or swelling...it never got any worse than the picture I posted. He had a game on Saturday and thankfully didn't stand on the pitcher's mound, although he was very disappointed when I told him I didn't want him catching. He has his last game on Wednesday, and Zachary's last game is Thursday. Tournaments begin on Friday evening and it will be a crazy, hectic schedule with me trying to be two places at one time. Please pray for my boys safety!

After this weekend, can you guess what I'll be doing next week on vacation? If you guessed "as little as possible," you are correct! I have some books at the ready, and don't plan on doing much more than that!

Happy Father's Day!

[One of my favorite wedding pictures]

Happy Father's Day, Dad! You are one-in-a-million, for sure. You have blessed us with your stupid jokes, taught us by example, raised us in a loving home, provided all that we needed, and have always been there for us. I love you! You know, the only time that we ever had our problems was when I was in highschool and you wouldn't let me have the last word ("That's enough." "Okay." "I said that was enough." "Fine."). But today, I get the last word (unless Mom shows you how to leave a comment!).

[2007]

Happy Father's Day, Scott! The boy's love the play-time and silly-time you give them. Everyone is disappointed when it's your late nights at work, but we love that you make up for it when you are home. Nick loves playing baseball on the Wii with you the most, and Zach is still sleeping right now, but if Nick and I had to guess we'd say he loves playing whiffle ball the best! Thanks for being a great Daddy!

Ouch!

I was finally relaxing at Nicholas' games...he has been doing so well, watching the ball and knowing where to throw the ball. Last night at his game he was playing "pitcher" (he's in C-Ball, which is machine-pitch for us) and the ball came right back at him. It was so fast he didn't have time to react, and unfortunately "caught" it with his face. It was absolutely horrible, but it could have been so much worse. I think if he would have had time to react, he would have turned his head and it would have hit him right in the ear. He is pretty sore today and still has the stitching marks from the ball.

I thanked God many times last night for watching over him and keeping him safe. Thankfully no teeth were knocked out, although he said they are sore.

He has two more games for the season, and then tournament games next weekend. I'm thinking he could play just as well in the outfield!

Whirlwind.

As I sat down to post this entry, I realized that tomorrow will be one month since my last post! Thanks for your patience...if any of you are still checking in!

Nicholas' ear continues to heal...we had a little "bump in the road" a couple of weeks ago. A layer of skin peeled off his ear (nothing major, just a real thin layer) and then the next day some boys got a little rambunctious with their wrestling and it got bumped, and was bleeding. To say I was sick was an understatement. It scabbed over, and the waiting game began. And the anxiety each time he put on his baseball helmet quadrupled. Last Saturday the scab came off and underneath was beautiful, pink skin! I still get anxious when I come home from work and see his ear for the first time that day, wondering how it will look. Part of that is habit from months of worrying...almost nine months...and part of it I'm just not too sure yet. There are still a couple of tiny tiny spots that I wonder about. I still have not been able to say "We're done." More like "We think we may be done." It's still quite red in some areas, and still pretty swollen. Here are a couple of pictures...I realize I never posted any!

[Stop taking my picture!]


[Last time, Mom]

So between healing lots of ball has been played. A typical week is Zach having games on Mondays and Thursdays, Nick having games Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Since school has been out they've been busy in the mornings with baseball camps. The difference in just a few short weeks is amazing, especially with Nick. Zach's team is doing much better than we thought (their first year with kid-pitch/stealing bases) and the improvement with Nick in just the past two weeks is terrific. This is his first year at machine-pitch and once he got the hang of it, he's been hitting great ever since. His whole team is improving and learning where the ball needs to be thrown to, etc. So...as busy and hectic as the schedule is, it is fun to watch them. I could bore you with a bunch of pictures, but after about 5, they start to look the same. Instead, I'll just share my favorite so far of each of them:

[Ready at First Base...my lefty]


[Not necessarily my favorite, but this show's him "whacking" the ball...as he tells me he's going to do before every game]

Swimming lessons and library started this week. At the end of the month we go on vacation and then when we get back we'll have about 6 weeks of summer vacation left...but who's counting? I can't believe how fast it's going! We are all looking forward to vacation and spending time with family. It will definitely be a treat.

Oh...and guess what I started doing again? Reading! I hadn't read anything for at least 8 months and I finally finished the Twilight series last week (hmmm...that could be part of the reason it took me so long to update the blog!). So, if anyone has any good book recommendations, I'd love to have them!

Have a great rest of the week...make it count!

Mother's Day Miracle

[Thanks to Sarah for the title of this post]

So, if you saw my last "tweet" you know that I am not typing this post for the surgery center in Atlanta, but rather from home (well...actually...Panera at lunch). Such a whirlwind. Such a blessing! I can still hardly believe it!

Yesterday morning we got up and around, ready for our day at the Georgia Aquarium. We went downstairs to get a taxi, and 15 minutes later a black Lincoln Town Car pulls up, asking if we called for a taxi. What style! We were at the Aquarium at 10:00, and it wasn't crowded at all. We hit all of our favorite spots and I let Nicholas take the pictures:

[This picture certainly doesn't do this wall of glass justice. I can't even get back far enough to show the entire wall. It is breathtaking.]

Then it was time to see the 4-d movie (the cute animated one where water sprays at you and bubbles come from nowhere...all of that fun!) and lunch. Afterwards, we had tickets for the Titanic exhibit. I got chills when we entered the exhibit. It was absolutely incredible. Scott and I didn't spend as much time as we would have liked, as there was alot of reading, but Nicholas really was patient with us and we did spend quite a bit of time in the exhibit. At the beginning, they give you a ticket with a passenger's name and their information, and at the end of the exhibit you can check to see if your person survived. I was a first-class movie star that survived. Sadly, as Nicholas put it, he and Scott "were swimming." It was amazing and sad. I'm glad that we were able to see it and experience this.



After we were finished, it was time to head to the gift store. I swear, I would have bought Nicholas anything he asked...the reality of soon seeing Dr. Jones was beginning to creep in and we were sure that we would be headed for surgery. Instead of a rather large stuffed animal whale, he settled on some plastic play fish and scuba divers.


We still had time so we went across the street to Olympic Park. It was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to just relax and enjoy the sunshine. It was time to call "Ben" the driver to pick us up to take us to Dr. Jones. Nicholas said "Why don't we skip Dr. Jones and just go back to the hotel and take a nap?" (The party animals didn't return from the Cavs game until 11:30 Saturday night, although Nicholas had a little nap during the 4th quarter).


Ben took us to Dr. Jones and he looked at Nicholas' ear. Left the room and came back with his microscopic glasses and was messing with the back of Nicholas' ear. He finally said those magic words..."This is skin!" He apologized for bringing us down there...are you kidding me? This was the best trip ever! He even wanted Scott to put the glasses on and look. Nicholas had a couple of spots that almost looked a bit like blood blisters, but Dr. Jones said that was fine, and he put some silver nitrate on it. He said it may need some more, or we could just leave it and it will more than likely go away on its own. I think Scott and I are ready for as little intervention as possible at this point! He gave Nicholas the clear to play ball and would like to see us in a year. He gives the ear two years for all of the swelling to go down and to see the true appearance, and at that time it may need a little "tweaking" if we choose. Obviously, at this time it's highly unlikely we'll choose anything!

[Nicholas doing a victory dance while we waited for the taxi. He was whooping it up, let me tell you! I think it was at this point that the news that he could play ball was finally sinking in! This could be my most favorite picture ever!]

Ben picked us up after Nicholas' appointment and happened to have AirTran's number programmed on his phone. Before we arrived back to the hotel, we had flights reserved for 6:40. Ben kept telling us that we would be able to make it, no problem. So we rushed into the hotel to pack (it's a good thing they didn't go through our bags...I'm not sure I would have been able to get my bag shut again!) and Scott talked to Jason, our buddy at the front desk. He was so incredibly kind and didn't charge us for cancelling the room reservations at a late notice, or for not "checking out" of our room until 4:00. If you ever need a hotel in Atlanta let us know, we are more than thrilled to recommend the Marriott and their staff at this particular location.

As Ben promised, we made it to the airport in plenty of time. The flight was great...Nicholas fell asleep before take off and we finally convinced him to stay awake after we landed. He's happy to be at school today and Scott and I are happy to be at work today (did I really just say that? Yes I did!).

[The view during decent...it was hard not to get emotional about the journey we have been on]

You know what else I'm happy about? I added Nicholas' baseball games to our calendar and had a huge grin on my face minutes ago when I purchased his baseball pants for pictures tonight. It's slowly sinking in!!!

A special thanks to our parents for helping us through all of this. You certainly made this past year easier for us, and for Zachary. Really, I'm at a loss for words on exactly what to say, but please know that we appreciate all you have done. We love you!

Lunch is about over for me, so I will go back through and add pictures later tonight. I have some good ones!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Christie

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Mom,

I wish I could be there today to wrap my arms around you and give you a kiss. Thank you for all you do, and for loving us so well. Thank you for taking wonderful care of the piece of my heart I left with you this weekend. I love you.

Let's Go Cavs!

An update.

Scott and Nicholas found their seats. It took longer to get to their seats than the taxi ride to the game! They are looking down on the scoreboard, and Scott said that a team is warming up on the court, but he wasn't quite sure which team it was! They are hoping the Cavs get a big lead and people leave so they can move closer. Go Cavs!

P.S. I found "Oceans 11" to watch...I think I'll be reading my book!

Enjoying Atlanta!

We had a wonderful flight to Atlanta, although we cut it quite close with our arrival. Everyone was pretty much boarded when we got there. Yikes! We got to beautiful Atlanta at noon, and grabbed a bite to eat at the airport before heading to our favorite hotel. They were kind enough to upgrade us to a King Suite again, which will be nice since we aren't leaving until Tuesday morning. I took a little nap and the boys watched some t.v. show about a man catching snakes and wasps...sorry I missed it! We walked about 5 blocks to our favorite outdoor mall and picked up a wrap for me from The Cheesecake Factory...why didn't I cave and get the cheesecake? I'm kicking myself now! Scott and Nicholas are standing in line as I type waiting to get in to cheer on the Cav's. I was planning on doing a bit of digital scrapbooking while they are gone, but discovered that I forgot the wireless part to my mouse, and I had it set up for my left-handedness...so my trackpad is all messed up. Guess I'll crawl in bed with my book and see if there are any good movies on!

We bought tickets for the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it and seeing the Titanic exhibit. We will meet Dr. Jones tomorrow at 3 p.m.