A UPDATE, FINALLY

Well, HI Y'all! It sure has been a while on my part, and I'm sorry, if i have any readers left :)... TONS has happened since I last posted... I promised pics of Brice's party & never got them to you... maybe if they r still on mom's camera I'll post them sometime later...

Well, the last few weeks of summer semester were CRAZY busy!!! We had tons of papers & projects to do in those last few weeks, I thought I was gonna die & never get it done... plus we had finals on top of papers... But w/ God's help, I made it.... got it all done, did great on finals, and got all A's (in all 2 of my classes! lol) .. I am in NO way taking credit for the A's... w/o God i definately couldn't have done it!!! Just for the record, they weren't nursing classes, just gen ed.. Fine Arts & Microbiology (w/ lab)....

2 weekends before school let out my great friend Lalia came over for the weekend (bcuz it was the last she could come b4 school was out, the nxt wknd was West Virginia for us)... She came over and we had a fun time :) .. that Saturday I had to go to the Art Museum w/ my Arts class & to pick out a painting for our paper for that class (that I had a week to do, not procrastination on my part, he just posted the guidelines then 4 the paper)... after that we ate at Sonic & met some of my family at the mall.... Actually we met mom & tonya who had sedona w/ them... we hung out w/ sedona :-)...then other random stuff for that weekend...

In the mall, Sedona saw this jumpy ride thing & had to ride it.. so i paid and she rode it, but I think this smile on her face made it worth the 4 or 6 dollars or whatever I paid...
That next weekend before school let out was our weekend to go to West Virginia... on the way home I noticed the BEAUTIFUL sky & mom snapped some pics.. the pics def don't do it justice, but WOW what an amazing God we serve!!!

Anyways, Finally school let out for summer... a surreal feeling let me tell you and i am/was OFFICIALLY halfway DONE w/ nursing school.... so now i admit i am PROUD of the fact that I am a 2nd year! I'm looking forward to the beginning of school cruise where this year I'll be a 2nd year & know a lotta stuff, whereas just last year i was this scared 1st year who didn't know anything!... did that sound really immature?? i hope not! lol...

Summer hasn't been TOO eventful! A lot of relaxing & reading books & etc! My first week off however, my brother in law, Bill, had to go on a trip for work & my sister, jess needed my help w/ the kiddies... So of course i went and stayed the week w/ her... i didn't go insane like i originially thought I would (as much as i love those kids)... and i learned a LOT about raising kids! lol.. I didn't take many pics... but i took a few... On the Wednesday of that week we took the kids to the Cincy Museum Center (Kids museum & science museum) I did snap a few pics on that day...

"Drivin" Daddy's mower, while waiting on Mommy (to leave for the museum)



Cam in the van.. it was still parked in the garage btw I (or Jess) do not let the kids run around w/o seatbelts while driving like some people do that I see ...

"Riding" the bus at the children's museum...

Science Museum... I'm not sure if these mounds were made to be climbed on .. but there wasn't a rope or a sign...soooo....

And since Big Sister climbed on these mounds of COURSE our little copy-cat, Brice had to too....

But how could I resist sucha cutie??

All 3 kiddies watching the "puter" about dinosaurs.. Sedona LOVES dinosaurs! I took this pic bcuz i thought it was cute, the 3 lil "stairsteps"

That next week on Tuesday evening we babysat the kids so Jess n Bill could go out ALONE for supper! I decided to do a "photoshoot" (and i use that term loosely i do NOT claim to be one of those aspiring photographers that we have soo many of now, i simply mean grab my camera & take some pics of the kids in places i tell them to stand, sit etc)... Anyways when i got the brilliant idea, i was gonna take pics of sedona but by the time i got my camera and came back outside she didn't wanna take pics so Cam was there and willing... and Brice is always ready to say "cheese"...

The first place Cam wanted a pic was this swing... not exactly the place i had in mind, but hey gotta make the kid happy...

By the way, I did take other pics but I just included the best ones on here...Most of them are on my FB if you wanna see more...

I LOVE this pic & thanks soo much to Lorna for helpin me edit it a little :) i LOVE how it turned out!

Despite Cam's expression I like this pic of the boys.. Brice in the background but lookin right at the camera....

My 2 favorite men! :-)

This is not a pose, the boys just looked down on their own.. trust me I am NOT brilliant enough to think of great poses.. however i LOVE this pic, how they both were lookin at the same thing!!!!!!

Awww.... my little cutie!

Sedona finally decided to cooperate w/ me & i tried to take a group pic.. this is the first of 4 attempts...

The only pic w/ all 3 looking at me... i know it's not centered esp w/ where the boys r sitting and it does bug me (lol) but kids are kids & at least they looked & smiled...

Haha..i thought this was great... how he looked away w/ his eyes just as i took the pic.. so funny

And now w/ him looking at me...

Again .. NOT a pose, but i thought it turned out good how he looked away..

Sedona & Brice or "Baby" as he is known by- Cam wouldn't cooperate 4 this one... I have 2 pics of these 2 together & had a hard time deciding which one to post (the other is on FB if you wanna see)

Brice was tryin to pick up a bug....literally he was chasin it.. boys will be boys... one time i told him to pick up a worm and he did.. then i told him to give it to Mama (my mom) and he did! HA..

So, back to my summer... one other week Bill was gone just one night, so i spent the night again.... we have to do 360 NCLEX (big state board test we have to pass after grad to be RNs) style questions and get an 80% or above this summer before we can start next year (no, we never get a true total "break")...i started these one day and got 2 REALLY horrible scores! i began thinking what if i can't pass these??? later that week I prayed before starting, and made it my goal just to pass 100... and PRAISE GOD he helped me get an 81%!!! I tried more today and got a bad grade on some, but then got an 81% on 100 more! So 200 down, 160 to go :-)...

Well, that's pretty much it.... summer's goin great, can't believe i've been off school a month already!!!

I'll try to post pics of Brice's party sometime.. even though they are WAY late they still r cute...

oh, and i'm sure you all know this already but I'm gonna be an aunt again in September... It's a boy.... But it's by Tonya & Craig this time (finally) so that's exciting :-)

Well, that's all for now.... hope you enjoyed

Happy Birthday, Brice!!!

Soooo I kinda missed Brice's Birthday! Well, I didn't miss it, but.. anyways Brice turned 2 a week ago today! But we are not celebrating his birthday till tomorrow! So, Happy Birthday, Buddy. Your the cutest lil guy ever & such a joy to be around!

An update on my life!

Hey All,
I realized I haven't blogged in 5 weeks and thought "I really need to blog", so here I am. Unfortunately I am at school, in a break between classes, so I cannot post pics....

However, I AM still alive!!! I survived last semester (Spring Semester of nursing school)... it was tough & needless to say I was VERY VERY VERY SICK of Anatomy & physiology by the time I finished, but I did finish! I survived finals week & actually passed all my finals I think! I am very glad this semester is over!

After this semester ended, we had a week off... this was more than we had off ALL semester, so it was VERY nice! Our spring break was a Friday & Monday off (and I already had Fridays off)... my very great friend Lalia came home with me for part of break (bcuz her parents are in Florida & she couldn't go home, and I didn't want her to have to stay in GBS dorm all break)... so we had SO much fun! :) relaxing... goofing off.. getting in trouble *wink*...

One of our "getting in trouble" parts was on Saturday we wanted to work outside, so we were told to pick up branches in the treeline... well we got EVERYTHING pretty much & wanted to move on to another area... well dad had told me to tell him & he would move the truck... I'm like .. "why can't i move the truck, i've driven it before??" ... well, dad & craig was down at a neighbor's & we didn't know when they would be back... so i decided to move the truck.. mind you this is not a nice new truck... rather an OLD (1979) brown chevy...but it's still fun to drive *wink* ...so i slowly drove it.. so as not to hit the "play house" or electric line in the side yard where it was... well i got kinda in between the playhouse & line so i wouldn't hit either one & got to the ditch.. umm....well.. i couldn't move.... i tried goin forward & it spun... i tried movin backwards & spun.. i tried this for a while & gave up.. Me & lalia walked over to where Tonya & mom were... well, I came to find out .. craig got his truck stuck back in our neighbor's field... i was SOOO excited... and when i told lalia she was SOO excited.. cuz we thought we were in so much trouble & we're like YAY we can't get in trouble now... when dad came back somehow we got the truck right out... obviously i don't know anything about getting trucks un-stuck... and craig's truck needed a little more help ... :)

Anyways, that was one of our adventures... we also got shots for school, i got a TB test (a yearly thing for people in the medical profession)... went shopping... read a LOT of books for fun... went "walmart" shopping twice with mom & jess & the kids... and ... lots more..i got a lot accomplished & had so much fun!

School started for summer semester this week, Monday... I don't have monday classes.. and my Tuesday class was canceled cuz the teacher wasn't here... so i didn't start till Wednesday 2 days ago... i have 2 classes... Fine Arts & Microbiology (and lab)... I think they're going to be pretty interesting.. although the way i hear it Micro is really hard!....

Well, that's about it for now! I'll post later with pics when I can!

Busy, Busy- Cam's B-day, Gaither concert, etc

Well, I promised to write about Cam's birthday outing but i've been BUSY!!! Friday of course was his b-day outing & that night his party. Saturday afternoon/evening/night I was gone to a Gaither Homecoming Concert at NKU, Sunday was church, Monday i was studying all day for a test, Tuesday-School (test), piano lesson, clinical prep homework, so TODAY i got out of clinicals at noon, actually earlier, and we're not supposed to get out till 3:30, so that was pretty incredible... so no more tests this week or next... I just love the "calm before the storm" before finals.... so i have a few days to relax a little and try to get caught up on the homework/quizzes I'm behind in.... So, i figured since I had extra time I'd blog... Happy April Fools Day, by the way...

So, Friday I went in to my sister, Jessicas house to get Cam... I got there a little before 11:20 becuase she had to leave to get Sedona from school at 11:30... Anyways, Brice got a "little" upset that I was taking Cam and not him.... he went out the front door with us (cuz Jess said he should it might help him be less upset) but we got to playing in the yard... he would run down the yard then i would run after him.... anyways he was NOT happy when his mommy took him he reached for me... then when I took Cam and went 2 my car he started crying (Later, I found out he had cried ALL the way to Sedona's school, about drove Jess crazy)... Anyways, I let Cam choose the restauraunt and he chose Chick-Fil-A... so we went there, got him a kids meal... he wanted to play in the little play area and i took him in there, but he's more quiet, intimidated by people like me and Jess and there was way too many kids in there, so he didn't play... so, on to Toys R Us.. we walked in circles around this one aisle for a while... he was leading the way.... eventually we looked thru a lot of the store... he chose some "Cars" cars that he didn't have..... then we went 2 Walmart... there was a single little toy gun laying on a shelf Tuesday when Jess and mom and the kids were in Walmart ... Well cam played with it and wanted it and thought mom was getting it for him for his bday and she wasn't so she told me be sure to go get it for him... he had to have that certain gun cuz it's like some kid in their neighborhood that they play withs gun... anyways we got that, I bought some candy (baby bottle pops) for the other 2 kids and headed back 2 Jess's house... Brice was SOOO happy to see me :) ... i wanted to take some pics of him and he saw my camera and headed straight for the fireplace...he thinks all pictures should be taken in front of the fireplace & a lot of times just goes sits there and wants pictures taken.... cam's party was Friday night, I'll write about it later, when/if I post pics (from mom's camera)...

Cam in my car
He found my sunglasses & proceeded to try them on

riding with bert & ernie at Toys R us

One of Brice's pics in front of the fireplace (with his baby bottle pop).. he's such a little cutie...

Me & Brice :)

Well, Saturday was the Gaither Homecoming concert at the Bank of Kentucky center at NKU, i went with a small group of people... it was the most INCREDIBLE experience... I wasn't sure how well i was going to like it with all the 1000's of people, I was thinking I won't get to meet the singer people... Anyway it was the most surreal experience to see Bill gaither in person, in the same room as me! Anyways the concert started out with Bill, Kevin Williams, Ben Speer, Ivan Parker, Gordon Mote, Janet Paschel, Russ Taff, Lynda Randle, (not necessarily in that order) THEN finally they called out the big dogs....lol.. Signature Sound came next and sang several songs then...... the crowd's favorite! Gaither vocal band!!! the lights were out and the guys were up there (but you couldn't really see who they were) and they just started the music and the crowd started SCREAMIN!!! GVB was definitely the crowds favorite, mainlly I think becuase of the new group... 2 of their singers left, so they revamped the group into a 5 member group (except sadly Mark Lowry wasn't there), and brought back Mark Lowry, David Phelps, and Michael english.. the 2 favs were David & Michael... After intermission, they kinda did the whole "friend" singing thing... GVB and Signature Sound sang together & the other people sang some all kinda mixed in.. A guy who used to play football for the Colts & now plays for the Bengals was there.. he's a Christian guy who likes working with kids in this spare time.. he's putting out a cd this year, he sang "Amazing grace" a capella...

It's hard to describe a Gaither concert, if you've never been to one, this was my first. But if you like Southern Gospel music they're incredible... there was 8,000 people there (according to Bill gaither) but the Spirit of God was there in such a real way... it was awesome 8000 people of different churches, different religions probably, but all they're banded together worshipping the same God... it was a awesome experience....

I got pics with some of the singers at intermission & afterwards... of course Bill & Gloria Gaither didn't ever come out... and I didn't see David Phelps either...

Oh, other cool thing about the concert... the people on stage would be singing then the screen would go to a video of the people who have passed away like George Youce, Jake Hess, etc singing that same song, just like they were there with us.. it was so sweet and sad... i'm glad they are keeping their legacy alive...another touching moment was when Ben Speer was singing and they had on one half of the screen a video of his dad singing with him....

Me & Ben Speer.. He's such a sweet guy... I just had to get a pic with him...one thing I appreciate about him is he doesn't change.. he doesn't 'modernize' to keep up with the times, he's the same, and still sings the good-ole-songs..

I was thinking about not gettin a pic with Russ Taff (above), but decided to. He sang a very moving song ... it talks about "i believe" that Jesus was born in the manger, taught in the temple, died on the cross, was buried in the tomb, but the clencher was that he didn't stay any of those places and isn't there now... It had a totally incredible part where Russ like did a recitation about how he could have been resurrected while he was on the cross and all... hard to describe but it was just a awesome song!!

Me & Ernie Haase, the guy over Signature Sound (my fav group)...i have a pic of me & ernie from the 1st concert i went to.... i guess almost 6 years ago... back when signature sound was a new group and not all that popular, so I wanted an updated pic, i didn't get pics with the other guys, cuz i just got pics with them, like a year ago.... Ernie does a great (and funny) Elvis impersonation....

This guy is one of my favs... Kevin Williams... he is a REALLY good guitar player and is just a FUNNY guy...makes the show really funny & entertaining...

This is my fav pic from the night... me & Michael English, one of the new old gaither vocal band members... :-)

Well, that's all for now... I need to go do some homework & laundry & my friend Lalia is coming over for supper tonight & to do some homework together so i should get working...Hope you've enjoyed this post....

Happy Birthday!

Well, I missed some birthdays. My brother in law Bill's - February 14. My brother in law Craig's - March 8 and my dad March 10. But I can't miss this one. Tomorrow, March 27 is the birthday of a very special little guy!!! 4 years ago tomorrow, it was Easter. Sunday morning my sister hadn't been feelin too well (past her due date) so they missed church. Sunday afternoon it became obvious someone was ready to join the outside world and Sunday evening Cameron Mark was born. At first I was "jealous" cuz I NEVER got to hold him!!! Someone else always had him!! Sedona was already a major "Mama's girl" and I wanted one of the kids to like me best. I know I probably shouldn't have felt or thought that way! Anyway as time passed it became obvious that Cam did prefer me over most everyone else! He would cry if mom or anyone (besides his mom and dad or course) held him. And I have to admit it made me feel pretty good. Now he's 4 years old (as of tomorrow) and we're still good buddies. He's a big brother now, but that doesn't take away from our relationship. Even though his little brother (and big sister) are pretty special too. Last year I was on gbs bandtour on Cam's birthday, so I took him out later just me and him. To Toys R Us, Sonic, Mall, etc. I think he had a lot of fun and enjoyed having time with just me away from Sedona and Brice. Tomorrow I'm going in and taking Cam out to lunch and to Toys R Us and lettin him pick out his own birthday present (since I haven't bought one yet). Then tomorrow night is his party. I'll post pics sometime of our outing and his party :-) so be looking for them!!!

Update on Zach!!!

For those of you who have prayed/been praying for Zach..THANK YOU!!!! Some of you heard this in church, but this is for the rest of you....

The doctor's told Zach he had lymphoma...like I said in my last post.... apparently sometime later on they said well... he MIGHT have lymphoma but he might also have this other disease called "sarcoidosis".... which is not curable but is treatable...they had to run a ton of tests .... they couldn't rule out cancer (lymphoma) for 2 weeks till all the tests were back.... well last Friday was the day they went and saw the surgeon...my aunt called on Saturday I think....she said that he has the sarcoidosis NOT LYMPHOMA!!!! she thanked us for all the prayers..... I was soo glad to hear this, I was having such a hard time dealing with this, and i really can't explain why...... anyways, the sarcoidosis is (according to one of my textbooks) "a chronic multisystem granulomatous disease of unknown cause that primarily affects the lungs"..... anyways hard to explain but it's a better diagnosis than lymphoma for sure.... THANK YOU ALL sooo much for praying for Zach & chrissy and please continue to pray for them.....he still is not feeling well, is tired & weak.... and of course now they have a rather large (i imagine) hospital bill to pay for. He was supposed to start on the treatment today i believe. The treatment for this disease is steroids...if they don't work (after a year i think) he'll have to have chemo. So, please keep them in your prayers! Thank God for hearing & answering prayers!!!

There is tons more i could say.... school is okay...i'm surviving.... barely...lol... my life is pretty much school..... They made all of us 1st year students change to a different parking garage (rather than the Christ Hospital employee garage)..it's the Baldwin garage way down Dorchester across the road from Eden park....it's not that far but it's kinda out of the way for me.... we started parking there today, my friend lalia rode with me since it was the first day and all.... I think it's a nuisance but we only have to put up with it till June ... cuz then we will be 2nd year and the new 1st years will have to park there next year!!!

Dad & Craig both celebrated birthdays last week (the 8th and 10th, respectively).... My uncle Pat's birthday is tomorrow (st. patrick's day)....

There were some videos from my camera I wanted to post from our last trip to West Virginia.....I never got around to it but hopefully i will sometime....

Well, that's all for now...this was meant to be an update on zach and nothing else, which is why it doesn't really update anything else much.... oh well...have a great week & great st. patrick's day...

Please Pray!

I'm writing this post for all of you who believe in the power of prayer! Those of you who I go to church with know some of this already, but not the details! We were visiting our family in West Virginia weekend before last and Sunday most of the family comes over for Sunday dinner. We hardly recognized my cousin, Chrissy's husband Zach! He had lost 80-100 pounds within a month or 2 w/o trying. He had been sick but they didn't know with what. They ran tests this week and found some problems, but weren't sure what exactly was wrong. Saturday they took him to a different hospital for more tests & a biopsy. We got the call around 8ish Saturday night. Lymphoma. Cancer of the Lymph Nodes. It was quite a blow to be honest, when mom got off the phone w/ my aunt & said "lymphoma" i just sank my head to the seat behind me (we were in the car) and let out a deep breath. Some people say this is an easy cancer to get rid of, some say it's BAD news! Zach is 24 years old, they just bought a house, have only been married 3 or 4 years, probably. My aunt is trying to get all the churches she can think of praying for Zach, so I am asking you all to pray as well, and if you want to pass this request along feel free. Pray for Chrissy as well as Zach, as this is very hard on her, having to work her job as well as go through this. I really just wish I could get the call saying he's cancer-free that a miracle happened, but I know God has a plan, and purpose for all this, after all there is a reason for everything. I hope that God's plan is to heal Zach, but I am praying for God's will to be done not mine. I hope you all will join me in this prayer.

(i took the pic from Chrissy's facebook, it was probably taken before they were married, but I thought it was a good pic of them)

Thanks for praying!

Concerning that last post..

Someone just told me that at the Gaither concert you can't find more than 2 seats together. I checked on ticketmaster, and could find up to 9 seats together (but they don't do group orders online) I have checked into this, but cannot get ahold of anyone at the Bank of Kentucky center tonight, I will call as soon as I can tomorrow and find out if there are big sections available, if not I apologize for blogging before I knew all the facts. On ticketmaster, the only tickets that were available were the most expensive which were $40 (so if we could get 12 tickets at group discount) it would be $32 dollars probably, but from what I could see there were no 20 or 30 dollar tickets left. Once again I apologize for the misunderstanding, and I'll get back with you all as soon as I can

Gaither Concert Anyone???

So, I know it has been a while since I posted, but I've been incredibly busy with school, and when I've had "free" time I have not spent it blogging. I do have stuff to write about and pictures & videos to post, which I will do eventualy. Let's just say this semester is definately a HUGE leap above last semester, in level of hardness (I know that isn't the proper gramatical way to say that).

Anyway, on to the point of this post. This pic above was to grab your attention, for those of you who only look at the pics. It's Bill Gaither w/ Signature Sound Quartet. March 28, it's a Saturday evening, at 6 pm, The Gaither Homecoming Tour People will be at the Bank of Kentucky Center at NKU. There are 3 levels of ticket prices, $20, $30, and $40. I'm going with a friend of mine and his church is trying to get a group together. If you have a group of 10 people you will get $2 off per ticket, plus 2 free tickets. We know of 7 so far that are going, but we need 12 (the 10, plus 2 more) at least. His pastor is going to announce it to his church tomorrow night, but they are wanting to order the tickets by this weekend. So with the 2 dollar discount, plus the money off for the free tickets (rather than 2 people getting in free we will just be getting more money off per ticket among ourselves) you will be getting $30 tickets for $22!!!

If we can't get a group of 12 people, some of us will still be going, but paying the full $30. Some of the artists that will be there are: Gaither Vocal Band, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound Quartet, Gordon Mote, Ivan Parker, Janet Paschal, Lynda Randel, and Kevin Williams.

If any of you (or somebody you know) would like to go and join our "group" please let me know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!! The money needs to be in by Sunday, so this is kinda short notice, I know. Please let me know via comments, emails, or text messages, calls if you have no other way to let me know. My email address is: Princessdarla07@aol.com my cell number is: 937-831-1149. Again, please let me know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, if you want to go I'll give you the address of the person to send the money to, but he'll need it by Sunday, so it will have to be mailed by Friday probably unless somebody wants to give it to him, (he lives in Norwood).

I know most kids my age (holiness kids at least) don't listen to southern gospel, they listen to contemporary or not christian music at all. But I still like southern gospel, I feel i can worship more to southern gospel and am listening to it NOT for the beat and to "be cool" or "fit in". I know most southern gospel artists aren't holiness and don't have our standards, or livestyles, for that reason some preachers preach against them, if you fall under this category I'm sorry, disreguard this message.

So, anyway, let me know ASAP, if you want to go but only if the tickets are $22, you can plan on going, send the money, and if they don't have 12 people, I'll make sure you are refunded your money! So, let me know, people! Thanks

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mommy's birthday. I'm not sure she'll even see this since she doesn't blog, she does read blogs sometime though, but she won't get it today since their computer is down right now, Anyway...the pic above is an OLD pic, from last year, way back when we had that snowstorm with a foot of snow on a weekend, remember? anyway yeah...

I won't mention how old mom is, because you're not supposed to tell/ask a ladies age, and also, i'm not entirely sure! lol, i kinda lost track of mom & dad's ages...oops...

Thanks mom for being a AWESOME mom! You're always there for me, and your not only my mother but your a great friend as well. Thanks for loving me & putting up with me, and havin fun with me....you probably know me as well as i know myself... your the best, hope you have the bestest birthday ever!!!

Reminiscing...

This morning an old friend from high school (I know that makes it sound like ages ago, haha) tagged me in 2 pics on Facebook. So, i looked at all of the pics from her high school days at ACA. So, after lookin at these pics it sent me back remembering things gone by. Memories are wonderful things. You can remember joy, excitement, and happiness, but also sadness and sorrow. A lot of times memories tend to make things seem better than they actually were, or bad things worse than they actually more. So for some things I remember...

-I don't actually remember my Papa Hoschar (dad's dad) i do remember a few things about the summer we stayed with him when our house was moved onto our land however. I was about 3 i think. I remember playing cars on his front porch, driving my cars along his porch railing, and the cars falling in the bushes. Mom would tell my sister's to get my cars they'd say, "Why do we have to get them?" Mom would say, "Cuz she's too little". I remember my sister push mowin my Papa's small city yard, and me following her with my bubble mower I got for my 4th birthday. My Papa apparently had hours of prayer & devotions in the mornings, I remember peeking through the keyhole of his bedroom trying to see him, one morning.

More recent things (these are NOT in order)-

- I remember tons of walk a thons at LBA
-I remember (perhaps) my first day of school ever. Walking into the classroom with my mom, and Mrs. Patti Cox (the kindergarten teacher at the time) saying "wow she already found her seat" or something to that affect (because i found my desk right away
-I remember in 4th grade being embarrased to death when the boy I liked announced to our whole tables (the desks were in groups of 4 or something) that we liked each other.
-I remember the first boy I ever liked, and he liked me. I was 4, he was 5.
-I remember my first day of high school & my first day at GBS! I was SOO scared, I was like shaking. Dad walked me up to the high school floor. And stayed with me, until I saw people I knew (Tara Campbell & Sandra Holden)
-I remember finding out that I was going to be an aunt for the first time
-I remember the day September 11, 2001. I was in junior high at LBA. They didn't tell us what happened, but they brought a memo in from the office & our teacher, Mrs. Burkett gasped when she read it. We were guessing all kinds of things- a schoolwide lice epidemic, a war, etc. Then, kids started going home early. 9/11/01 didn't affect me all that much, since i was only 12 and didn't even know what the twin towers were.
-I remember the eve of the first Bush election, staying up listening to 700 WLW & Billy Cunningham (who was at that time for "Georgey Bush")
-I remember saying "If Bush wins I'll run around the outside of our house 20 times, shouting" (Pretty sure i never did that)
-I remember when I went to Bush rally the day before the 2nd election. That was SOO exciting (and the most awake i've ever been at 5 am)
-I remember when I heard that Sedona had been born. I was at my sister Tonya's house in N.C. & it was like 4 am. Needless to say, neither me nor tonya could sleep after that.
-I remember the going away party we had at LBA for long-time 2nd grade teacher, Miss Peteroti (and i remember when i was in Kindergarten or 1st grade thinking her name was Miss Pepperoni)
-I remember how in 3rd grade, I could never get the list of seat work (aka busy work) done.
-I remember in 4th grade on my "Ohio" project getting a "103" because I put "too much effort" into it and another girl got "105"
-I remember in 6th grade, our teacher letting us make prank calls on her cell phone during class.
-I remember the same teacher getting mad at us and slamming the yard stick on the overhead projector and breaking it (the projector) before leaving the room.
-I remember in 6th grade, the only time i got in trouble. One morning before school I found a hashbrown in my desk, I asked my good friend, Tara C, what i should do with it, "Put it in Jason's locker" I did. He put it in Garrett's locker. I got in trouble, "not because i did a joke but because it carried". I remember standing on the walk at recess (the punishment) and almost crying when another teacher asked "why in the world are you here for?"
-I remember the many pilgrim/indian dressup days at LBA, when in the younger years I usually dressed as a cowgirl or indian, when i got older i came as a pioneer (cuz i loved the long flowy dresses)
-I remember arriving at many LBA christmas programs in the standard Christmas Program Black Skirt & White Shirt, and being SOO proud to be a LBA student.
-I remember how our class was known as the "most spiritual" class at LBA & also how the first kid to ever get kicked out of LBA was in our class.
-I remember when my aunt had my cousin (now 11 y/o) going back to see him. She promised me i could hold him all day the next day but in the night he turned blue and had to be taken to the hospital
-I remember locking my sis & one of her former bfs out on the back deck once ages ago
-I remember when my sister's got married (in June & September 2001)
- I remember not crying at all through my sister, Tonya's (first one to get married) wedding, reception, or cleaning up the church afterward until I read a letter she wrote us (on the way home) that made everyone cry, including me.
- I remember the night I heard that Glen Payne, from the Cathedrals, had died.
- I remember the many trips to "Rite Aid" with my oldest sis Jess, after she was out of high school & just working (she would always buy me tons of stuff). I remember sneaking a giant size Hershey bar in the cart, her buying it then getting mad at me that I didn't tell her about it.
-I remember the Christmas Dinner at church when Bill (now my brother in law) had asked our pastor's wife to seat us at our table (he was just beginning to "date" "like" whatever, my sis jess) we got there first and found his nametag was by dad's with a empty seat then Jess. I promptly moved his nametag next to Jessica's (we knew he didn't want to sit by dad)
-I remember the evening after my freshman year, high school, awards ceremony. I hadn't expected to get any awards, but had placed 1rst or 2nd in every class. I remember then determining to keep it up & get valedictorian with 4.0 gpa.
- I remember when i found out i had made an A- in either choir or computer in high school. I cried all the way home (because A- was NOT 4.0) we got the situation fixed, however.
-I remember all the morning's of NOT wanting to go to our high school choir PR services
- I remember my 8th grade graduation, my relatives from W VA came in-cousin Joseph was sick, coughing, they gave him Benedryl or something & he slept the whole service
-I remember the agony of waiting for Cam to be born (he was a week late)
-I remember the sadness & disbelief when I learned a beloved (to everyone) teacher GBS high school was leaving (end of JR year)
-I remember the shock & sorrow when I found out my K-8 principal, Mr Dean Truesdale was in the hospital and later passed away
-I remember a dear, old lady from church whom I always called "Grandma". I also remember when she died, a long time ago
-I remember playing Army, McDonalds, Christmas and much more with Stephanie Jowers (Arnold)
- I remember the years and years of carpooling to LBA with Margaret Jowers & Stephanie.
- I remember later on when Daren Berkebile & Nate Jarasat joined our carpooling.
-I remember the sadness when in 5th grade my best friend that whole year, the last week of school told me "I'm tired of hanging out with you" and started hanging out with the most popular girl in the class.
-I remember when (in high school) Craig (my brother in law) called us to let us know his mother had passed away (with cancer). I remember traveling down to N.C. for the layout & funeral.
-I remember high school graduation, it was soo hard to believe i actually made it & was graduating. It was so bittersweet
- I remember senior trip. too bad our class had to wait that long to truly bond & grow close. I remember the evening devotional times we had on SR trip in our Gatliburg cabin. I remember how i always went to bed before everyone else (who stayed up half the night)
-I remember how in high school, i somehow always was friends with seniors, they would leave and i'd have to start over again the next year. I remember senior year my best friend was a non-GBS person. I remember the months of hurt when that person let me down.
-I remember orientation week to GBS college. I was SOO scared I wouldn't make friends & didn't know many people. I remember the joy when i made a good friend. I remember the sadness & hurt when that friend abruptly changed towards me & let me down that next spring (what hurt worse was I had told her how much the friend my SR yr had hurt me and she did the exact same thing to me). These are "ancient" history now, but they are still huge memories for me that would be unfair to leave out seeing as how they helped me come to the person I am now.
- I remember March of 08. when i got that letter from Christ College (of nursing...) and knew it said either i was accepted or rejected. I froze when i got it before opening it.
-I remember all the preparation for nursing school. All the shots, DRs visits, CPR class, all the trips to the college for random things (uniform trying on, registration, meeting my advisor, pre registering, etc)
-I remember the excitement when I learned another GBS girl (one my my bffs bff) was going to Christ College too.
-I remember praying that summer for God to give me some good, true friends. (since all my best friends had either let me down & hurt me or just kinda drifted out of my life/losing touch, not seeing each other etc)
- I remember the joy when i realized God had given me 2 really awesome totally different best friends.
-I remember all the studying and schoolwork last semester
-I remember how i didn't try as hard as I should have, but God still rewarded me
-I remember all the prayer's that went out finals week & the happiness & joy i felt when i learned I had achieved my academic goals for that semester.

I could list more, but you get the point. It has been a while since I last posted, but after posting TONS of Christmas posts not one person commented so i just didn't feel like posting. I do know some people read this however, 2 people who don't have blogs, told me they read this/or do when they have time. I know this is a different sorta post, but some of these things were floating through my head all morning, and i just had to get them out in writing. Thanks for reading...

Almost forgot-the pic of my pic!!

I almost forgot! Here is the pic of the picture I got for Christmas. It's in a mat & frame but i zoomed in so you could see the details better. I described it in an earlier post so I won't now. If you want to see it better just click on it to see it big.

My last Christmas Post- A few random pics

I bought dad that shirt for Christmas. Didn't know if he'd wear it but I liked it. He put the hat on (he got at a flea market) and got one of his guns to make this goofy pic to send to Jose (a friend in Mexico)

At Jess n Bill's the Tuesday after Christmas. Cam in his big gift from his mommy n daddy and Bill's parents (i think)

My 2 cuties wearin the shirts i bought them for Christmas. I bought Sedona a Wall-E shirt. I also bought the kids each a little "Mack" truck (from "Cars") with 3 cars on it. You can't tell that Brice is almost 2 years younger than Cam in this pic can you? lol, cuz Cam is so tiny & brice, let me just say, he LOVES to eat!!

well, that finishes my Christmas posts! Finally. so now, when I go back to school all i have to worry about is posting new stuff that happens!!

New Years-we didn't do much. The week after Christmas Tonya stayed with us since Craig was gone on a trip all week. That was pretty fun. but we didn't really do anything for New Years Eve. New Years day we went up to Wilmington and ate at a buffet that dad(and us) really like & did a lil shopping (in the few stores that were open)

well, that's all for now. hope you enjoyed all many posts and pics, hope i didn't overwhelm yaal. I have to leave in...2 hours for church and i need to practice piano & pack the rest of my clothes to take back down to my apt tonight.

Please pray for me this week if you think about it. I start school Monday, and have classes Monday,Tuesday,Thursday, and clinicals on Wednesdays. I was looking at the syllabi onlin this afternoon and it seems that this semester is going to be a LOT harder so any prayers i would be grateful for!

More Christmas

Sedona & Papa

Cam with a gift that he had really wanted!!

Brice with 2 of his favorite gifts. Baby bottle pop & mop

Sedona opening her gifts beside Papa

Christmas Pics

All the gifts while they were spread out (when we were organizing them) I had to take this pic to prove how much we had under that tree!!

In Christmas-es past when my sister's were home Tonya was always the one to wake us ALL up. she was always the most excited about Christmas. Mom says when Tonya was little she would unwrap things throwing paper over both shoulders while Jess would take her time & try to not rip the paper. Well, now that the girls are gone, it's just mom, dad, and me on Christmas mornings. This year we just set a specific time to open gifts, to allow mom enough time to get dinner on. So we got up and got ready. The big part was diggin out ALL the gifts under the tree to find ours. After we did that we put the rest back, and started unwrapping, taking turns, mom, dad, me, etc. we actually didn't take any pics while unwrapping, sorry, and i didn't actually take a pic of all my stuff either, sorry again. Dad took a pic of me with stack of gifts before i opened them but it was a bad pic (= not posting it). I did get a lot of nice stuff though. Mom & Dad cut down on their spending this year, but you never would have known it to look at all the stuff I got. Mom & Dad gave me a choice earlier in the year between something that I would "really like" or something I needed, becuase the couldn't get them both. Well, of course i chose the something i would like, because just getting something you need isn't as fun. Well the thing they had in mind (a hammered dulcimer) was more expensive than they thought, so they didn't get one. But when we were in Tennessee for vacation this summer we were in a lil christian bookstore and there was a really cool pic i liked, but it was too expensive. I LOVE patriotic stuff if yaal don't know and my room at home is decorated in it. It was a pic of Jesus with the symbols of America & Christianity, and he's crying. I REALLY liked this pic when i saw it, so i told my parents when they went back down just the 2 of them in like November or something if they still had it they could get it for me for Christmas. well, i really didn't think i would get it, but sure enough I unwrapped it on Christmas. Oh, and the thing i needed, i got that too (since they couldn't get the dulcimer). So anyways yeah, later Christmas morning, Tonya & Craig came out, then Jess, Bill, & the kids. We ate lunch. Then after lunch was over & at least cleared off the table we went 2 the living room for round 2 of gifts. we decided to do all the kids (sedona, cam, brice) first and get that cleaned up then the adults would go around and open ours. So, I helped Brice open his gifts. He loved the little packs of hotwheels (out of all the big things he liked the little things) also, tonya bought the kids a baby bottle pop sucker to go with what she bought them and that was another favorite of Brice's. That and a cheap toy mop mom picked up for Brice somewhere. Lol. After that we unwrapped our gifts, I got a "nursing" desk calender & perfume from jess n bill, and 2 shirts from tonya n craig. after that i pretty much played with the kids the rest the day I think. It was a good Christmas overall! :)

Mom's stack of gifts from me & dad

Tonya & Craig

Cam (before dinner)

2 lil cuties on Christmas

Waiting patiently for dinner so they can get their gifts afterwards.

I had Sedona sit on a can of that popcorn that they have out at christmas ya know with the 3 kinds in it?? well, dad got some as a gift from some parts people he uses (for work) so i had her sit on that in front of the fire