Bunnies, Braces, and Boy Scouts

I can't write about me till I tell you about Meri and Ryan.  This sweet family is battling Ryan's newly diagnosed cancer (6 brain tumors and additional ones in his lungs and abdomen).  I will not do them justice, but they are an amazing family-with four sweet boys (three of them with type 1 diabetes!), and they need our prayers desperately.  Ryan has already started radiation, and they are beginning to fill with h.o.p.e.-thanks to everyone's prayers!  Please keep them in mind, and you are welcome to send them thoughts, prayers, and even donate if you feel called!  Here is their facebook page and their Give Forward page where you can send them hugs or donate!  Just say hi and encourage them..it's been hard to accept the love..they are such givers.  I'm so thankful to have gotten to know Meri-she's such a blessing! : )

And we have still been going..like Energizer bunnies.  I guess in more ways than one. ; )  I'm still making it-not so far to go now, thank goodness.  34 weeks on Tuesday!  Tons of contractions, little back pain today, but hanging in there.  I need him to get a little bigger so he can come right home. : )

Mary Claire had a JDRF Awards Ceremony for the walk we had in the fall, and Clay has finally moved up to BOY scouts, and earned his Arrow of Light (a BiG deal!):

A super fun awards ceremony: awards, go carts, games, and prizes!

Isn't he good to pose for Mama?  This was graduating to Boy Scouts (from cub scouts).

He was one of three boys who was a "Webelos Super Achievers": earning all 20 activity pins! (Totally thanks to his daddy!!)

Here's the special patch (that doesn't go on his uniform!)

Then he got ready to cross over: they removed the navy tabs on his shoulders, his handkerchief, and the little clip.  Then..

His new pack was on the other side to give him new tabs and a new handkerchief!  Look how big they are.  Oh gosh.

He's so excited! ('Cause they camp out at least once a month and a week in the summer!)  Can you see his sweet smiling face in the center?

And after we'd been up front presenting our sweetie with his arrow of light badge and his arrow!

Ok, seriously-Daddy was SO responsible for keeping Clay on track for his Arrow of Light and for all his pins-way to go, both of you! ; )

..and I just get to smile with my boys. ; )  (Ethan had already jammied up for bed!)

Ethan is doing well-we found out after a preschool eye exam that he has astigmatism, and after a real eye exam..he really does have a football-shaped eye (just one, so..), he is getting glasses.  My little boy.  He gets them this week, I think he'll be adorable.  He is so excited!  Now we know why he seems so :clumsy: bumping into the door frames, walls, countertop, even the water fountains at school!  Walls appear to bend when you have astigmatism, and you don't perceive surfaces/dimensions well.  Our friend, Dina, seems to think he'll grow out of it possibly.  We'll go back this August to check again before school starts.  If he doesn't get glasses the other eye will do all the work, and the right one will get weaker.  Can't have that.

And we are going for his kindergarten well-visit tomorrow..he goes this fall, believe it or not (I don't.).  He will surely get vaccines updated, which I've conveniently forgotten to mention to him.  I think I'll spring it on him with a treat/bribe.  And me?..I'm getting my braces off tomorrow-finally!  (well, I hope.)  I was supposed to get them off last Monday, but the lab was really busy-so tomorrow is the plan.  I've been begging/demanding to have them off before I deliver..and hopefully everything will happen in order. ; ) As long as these contractions hold off. ; )


Busy week coming with lots of appointments, Bible study, Bunco, hair, doctors, and Endocrinologist on Friday!! Hoping for a good a1c, we'll see what we get. ; )  Love to be busy right now, it makes the days go so fast..and the next week is Spring Break!  Ches is so excited.  He's taking FMLA (sick hours) after that for the remainder of the spring semester.  I need him, but he's getting to teach from home-a much needed rest/break after years teaching.  We are so ready. ; )
 

Snow Day and Gold Sneakers

..did I ever show you the cute ad that is coming out this month in Celebrate magazine?  heehee, it's my girl! : )

 
We did that photo shoot with Jeremy Caviness last summer (..remember the dE-Lish cupcake shop?? Yum!), anyway I finally uploaded phone pictures...

Yesterday we went to Sam's to get my new tires (the ones I asked for for Christmas?)-I was nervous about driving without them in snow or ice.  And I knew Today was coming.  I had to have Mary Claire at the orthopedic surgeon's office at 8:20am!  I did call at 8am to make sure they were open, and they were!  So, we set out.  It was icy in Springdale, but they had salted/graveled (I actually followed the truck!), and then the big 540 bypass was totally dry.  Fayetteville streets were also dry, so I can see why they had school (I forgot to mention we didn't!).  Mary Claire had more xrays today:

because I forgot to take a picture last time (and she didn't even have to change into a gown!)

Can you see the cracks in her upper humerus?  One is coming in from the bottom (arm pit) towards the upper growth plate line, and the other crack is from the outside up to the line.  She already has some bone that's grown over the cracks to heal them-in ten days!

She doesn't need surgery, praise the Lord!  Even after all the goofing off (sliding!) she's been doing.  She has to wear the sling for four more weeks, and we'll have more xrays on February 9th.  She can't exercise or put any pressure on her arm.


Then we ran errands (she had some money for her A's on her report card that was burning a hole in her pocket!), went to Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart, then home.  I was ready to work on some pump pouches! : )  I had a Pay-It-Forward debt to pay forward!  My first project was to make a pump pouch for a little girl we were going to see tonight.  She wanted pink and peace signs.  I knew Mary Claire would like the same thing, so I made her one too.
We started with fabric-you have to prewash it so it won't shrink!

My plan was to make two for Mary Claire-one for Valentine's Day, and the peace sign one for both girls

Then, I cut out the pieces-it takes four (front, back, loop, and long strip for the waistband).

Then I work some sewing magic with a zipper, velcro, and elastic...and they are pump pouches! : )

While I started working, I had three little bundles playing outside!  I just had to stop and take pictures.  It was only 14 degrees here, and the wind chill was below ten, so I wrapped their noses and mouths with scarves-quite adorable.  They made us laugh-when we cleaned our garage (on my birthday if you remember), we threw out the sled-it was broken.  So the kids pulled stuff out of the big pool toy box to slide down the hill on!  They used a "skateboard", a boogie board, and an innertube!

love their scarf-masks : )  (Ethan came to the front door and told me his scarf was wet with snot.  Yay.

Ok, just one more activity..we had our JDRF Awards Ceremony this evening at Fast Lane!  We had pizza, awards, and got to ride go-karts! : )

NWA JDRF Walk Awards Ceremony

Her first award was for the Silver Team award-raising between $2500-$4999 for the JDRF Walk To Cure 2010.

Her second award was the Golden Sneaker Award (her name is fourth on the left) for individually raising at least $1000.

Up at the front with her Golden Sneaker (a glass sneaker safely tucked away in a padded box!)

I think it's her fifth or sixth one?  She did break one, but now she takes better care of them! : )

 I like that this year's golden sneaker is more oval-ly.  It's usually a shapely sneaker, that's not so stable on the base, hence the broken one.  This one seems stable!

And then...the FUN!  We used our tickets to ride go-karts!  I got this picture since Clay got to go with the group before us, after that, I rode every time, and my camera was packed away in my purse.  Sometimes, I'm having too much living life to take pictures of it! : )

Oh, what a great day-we began with good news (and a Snow Day), and ended with joy.  Hope you had a sweet day too!

Don't forget-I'm still taking comments for a $25 gift certificate to CSN.com!  I'll announce the winner on Thursday, January 13th-only T-W-O days away! : )