Happy Fall Ya'll!

Fall has always been one of Kelly's favorite seasons, and is one that I have grown to love as well. The kids have had a blast the past few days carving pumpkins, making cupcakes,trick-or-treating and hayrides.Kelly and the kids working hard carving their pumpkins. Carson proudly showing off his creation!
We began our traditional trick-or-treating making stops at our close family and neighbors tonight. Everyone is always so glad to see the kids dressed in their costumes, and of course the kids love it! There was an unhappy sheriff in town, he did not appreciate being made to sit still for a photo! Calmed down now! John Ashford looked so cute in his costume!
We crossed paths with our cousins at one of our stops and took a group photo.
What a crew!!!! One of the kids favorite places to trick-or-treat is Stephen's! They love to go there because they never know what to expect! Most of the time the tables are turned and they are tricked! This year he was sitting on the porch, posing as a lifeless scarecrow with his head covered by his shirt. He left the candy bags on the table beside where he was sitting. As the kids reached for the treat bags, he jumped up and scared the kids, or at least tried to! They weren't scared a bit! He said he almost suffocated waiting for us to get there! So funny!!! For the past few years our dear friends, John and Leigh, have hosted a Halloween party at their home. It is always a great time to get together, enjoy a hot bowl of chili, hot dogs, and other goodies. Kelly, has some competition in the chili cookin' department, and I do believe that he feels threatened by Leigh's! After eating, we made a hot cup of coffee and walked the neighborhood with the children letting them do a little door to door trick or treating! It was so much fun! Thanks John and Leigh we all had a wonderful time!Saturday night the kids and I went to the McFarling Annual Wiener Roast/Hayride! Kelly's Aunt and Uncle always host this fun event at their farm. This is one of the few times a year that we get to see Kelly's cousins and their children! It is amazing how much they seem to grow between events! It is always so much fun and the kids love the hayride and smores!!! Kelly was in Birmingham and very disappointed that he missed it! Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the hayride.

Race for the Cure-My First Race!

I did it!!!! Finished my first 5K in under 40, the official time was 35:46, I think!!! Whoo-Hooo! Mama, Me, Roan & Stacee before race Stacee, you make it look so easy!
Just past mile 1- I'm thinking what? 2 more!!!!
Go Roan, Go!!!
After race photo, with eyes closed I might add! Kelly took my picture crossing finish, but some ladies big brown ponytail covered my face!
Scott, Stacee, Roan and me - they're discussing their times, I am just trying to recover!!! They all did great! Roan finished 26 something and Stacee 28 something- they are both training for the St. Jude 1/2 marathon! Check out Roan's blog for her family's times. They amaze me-awesome!!!
Mama did the 1 Mile fun run with Parker and Carson!
I am so proud I accomplished my goal...I am shooting for 30 next race. I am thankful my sweet family was there to cheer me on!!!

Fall Getaway

Kelly had a conference this week in Jackson, and the kids and I tagged along. We left Wednesday afternoon and got back yesterday afternoon. It was very short, but much needed. I have been feeling cooped up with cabin fever lately. We went to Bible study at the church in Clinton Wednesday night. It was good to see friends there and also to see some of the ladies that I met last year at the women's retreat. Thursday, I took the kids to the MS Museum of Natural Science. It was a great museum, the kids really enjoyed it. They had some beautiful nature trails, but the weather was rainy and cool. We were able to walk for a while on one in between rains.
Afterwards, we went back to our hotel, The Edison Walthall, one of the oldest in downtown Jackson- not my favorite, but it was paid for, to rest and wait on Kelly to finish his class. We went to Target to do some Christmas shopping, but unfortunately did more shopping for ourselves! We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Macaroni Grill, ate way too much, but it was soooo good! Friday morning we checked out and went to a different Target, I know... pretty silly for some, but not for me! I had to return some stuff and also wanted to see if they had some things the other didn't have in my size. Kelly finished at noon, so we picked him up and headed out. We stopped at Raising Canes, a chicken tender place and picked up lunch and went to the reservoir and had a picnic. The weather was beautiful! We also stopped and walked the BaldCyprus Swamp Trail on the Trace. It was very interesting and the kids loved it! That is the extent of our short, but fun trip!

Broken Bones

I wanted to update about the little boy in the 4-wheeler wreck that I posted yesterday. I got this email from his mom tonight. Please remember him in your prayers. Here's what she said:


Okay, I'll try to update everyone at once! Today has been a really trying day.

First of all, I was really thinking that Noah's injuries were minor. Like as in a little tear in the cartilage, maybe a torn tendon or ligament, that type of thing. His pain has been almost non-existent with it only hurting if he tried to stand on it. The swelling was not atrocious, and there is no bruising whatsoever. So when the doctor came in after the x-ray and said, "This is baaaad... His leg is broken." I was unprepared, to say the least. He said that we'd need to go to an orthopedic surgeon but first we needed to do an MRI. Then after the MRI he came back and said, "This is really bad. It's worse than I originally thought. Y'all will probably have to go to LeBonheur to have this fixed. The break is in his growth plate. It's broken in multiple places." So I sat there looking like a deer in the headlights. I only took Noah today as a precaution so that down the road nothing would come back to bite us because we didn't have it x-rayed!! There was no sign that there was this kind of damage. And believe me, I was LOOKING for an excuse to take him to have it seen about. It wasn't even a bad accident!!

We went to the ortho and he said to us, "This is B-A-D. I'll have to consult a pediatric orthopedic specialist for this. It's really bad." Then he showed it to me on the MRI. Oh, y'all.... It's awful. Noah's growth plate in the tibia (large bone of the lower leg) is shattered. The protrusions on the outside top of the bone are broken off, and there are two breaks thru the growth plate and down into the shaft of the bone. One looks like a twisted break (don't remember what kind of fracture that is called) that starts at the top corner of the growth plate and runs a couple of inches down and around into the shaft of the bone. The dr. is worried that Noah's leg will just quit growing altogether, or that it may grow unevenly and leave him with a crooked leg. He said that it's the worst growth plate fracture he has ever treated or seen in his office in all the years he's been practicing. This was not a record I was ever interested in breaking, no pun intended. I'm still in stun mode. This just doesn't seem real.

Thankfully, we don't have to go to LeBonheur, but Noah does have to have surgery. We'll be having surgery some time in the morning on Wednesday to screw the floating pieces back together. To put Humpty Dumpty back together again, the doctor said. He also said that he would not be able to do anything to repair the growth plate because any attempt at repair would only worsen the injury. And the consequences.

We go tomorrow for pre-op and to find out surgery time. I'll let y'all know. It will be outpatient and we should be home in the evening on Wednesday.

Thanks for checking on us. I appreciate y'all.

I'm still numb.

Lori

Counting our Blessings!

This weekend has been full of many things but mostly full of blessings! Starting Friday afternoon, Kelly and the boys began preparing for their fall Contenders camp out. Kelly made his famous chili, the one where Rolaids are a must have for dessert! I am told that the camp out was very successful - the boys had fun collecting cow bones, falling into the lake, and riding 4-wheelers and go-carts through the pasture!

Campsite

Clay & Carson

I wasn't at home when they got back from the camp out, but my uncle saw them rolling in and gave me advantaged warning that they were covered from head to toe in mud or who knows what else-from the smell of it-I believe that more than mud was involved! Fortunately, they had already put clothes in the laundry, showered and all three of my boys were snoozing soundly! Let the counting of blessings begin. When Kelly woke up, he broke some very disturbing news to me. Parker apparently got on a 4-wheeler with 2 other boys as a passenger, let me add that Kelly had no idea that he was doing this!I am not sure exactly what happened, but they ran off into some type of gully and they were flipped off - all 3 of the them. One of the dads carried a pretty upset and shaken Parker back to the camp site to his daddy. I am pretty sure a real life lesson was taught from the accident! After Parker woke from his nap, I held him, loved on him, and had to ask "what in the world made you think that it was okay to get on a 4- wheeler with a child driver?" What did he answer, "well mom, everyone else was doing it!" How many of us have said those exact same words in our life times! Not the answer we as parents want to hear! I am so thankful and counting my blessings that Parker and the other boys were not seriously injured! Parker does have a bump on his head and a swollen jaw, and one of the other boys has a very swollen leg and will have an MRI tomorrow- praying that there isn't anything too serious. Anyway, back to the stinky, muddy clothes-my new washer with the "sanitize" cycle worked wonderfully! Avery and I spent the afternoon shopping with Lesley and John Ashford. Kelly gave me the go ahead on buying new running shoes! Yeah! I went to Trails and Treads and after trying on around 10 different pairs, I found one that felt great and doesn't look too bad either! I felt totally guilty spending that much on a pair of shoes, so that will be another incentive to keep running! I must get my moneys worth! We then went on to birthday shop at Toys R Us, and I did buy some Christmas gifts, too! I have a good jump start on Christmas- hopefully I will finish up in the next few weeks! Avery and I picked up Chick-Fil-A for supper and went home and had a little "girls nite in!" We had a fun, quite and relaxing evening. Saturday morning we went to Maddi's birthday at Chucky E. Cheese! I thought that since the party was a 10:30 it would be pretty vacant-boy was I wrong! They had 3 maybe 4 parties going at once, with 3-4 moving right in behind the 10:30 crew! The kids had a great time!!!



Saturday night we went to Bible study at our dear friends Scott and Barbara's house. The study was centered around our lives being like a vapor and raising our children to love the Lord and to be faithful to death. Scott prefaced the study telling us that his son, Jonathan, whom I might add is a wonderful example of what a young man should be, had been involved in a really bad car accident Friday afternoon. Scott said that the scene of the accident and the cars were horrible! They are not upset that Johnathan was in the accident or that his car is totaled- just counting their blessings that their son walked away with only a small scratch. Thanks to his seat belt, airbag, but most importantly God watching over and protecting him. How sweet life is, and how dear our children are. All the petty things don't matter-sometimes things like this give us all a must needed wake-up call! Moving on.... to a less somber note, how many ways can you use a leaf blower!? It depends on who you ask, I guess, but Kelly will tell you two. One the obvious, blowing leaves, dirt, etc... or two, trying to battle a swarm of bees! I think that the boys must have brought back the queen! There was literally a swarm of them in our garage near the bags that held aluminum cans that the boys are recycling. I will definitely be posting pictures of the "honey bee - leaf blower match! It was hysterical!


Today after worship services we went to Kelly's moms for a family reunion with the Wilson's. We saw many familiar faces, but more unfamiliar ones. It was a great time of meeting, catching up and filling in the blanks to our family tree. I told you that our weekend was full, sorry about jumping around so much, just have too many thoughts trying to get out! I am counting my blessings one by one - first for Jesus and what he did for me, second, for family and the love that we have for each other, third - for celebrations of another year of life- another day even, and last but not least, leaf blowers, honey bees, my husband all 3 combined for the blessing of laughter! I am going to bed now, and instead of sheep- I am going to continue counting my blessings!!! I encourage you to do the same!

Not Much to Blog About!

My cousin, Christy, called me yesterday to make sure that I was okay, because I hadn't posted in awhile! Too funny! All is well here, besides the occasional cough and sniffle. Everyone seems to be fighting off the seasonal weather change with colds and allergies. So far this week has been relatively calm for us, which is a nice welcome! I started week 3 of my training schedule -still pretty much torture for me right now! Everyone has been very encouraging, telling me that it does get easier, even addicting! Can't wait to get there!!! On a more positive note, I do feel like I am progressing - I am up to about a 15 minute mile, which doesn't sound that great, but it is 2 minutes faster than when I started! The kids are looking forward to the weekend. Parker and Carson are going to be camping out with our Contenders group, and Avery is going to Maddi's birthday party Saturday morning at Chucky Cheese's! Okay, that is the scoop here, pretty boring, but that's our life - for the moment anyway! Now off to the treadmill and then school!

Join the Cause!!!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and there are several things we can do to help! After watching the segment on the Today Show this morning and reading my friend, Leigh's blog, I joined Army of Women. Please read Leigh's blog for more information! Also, participate in the Race for the Cure. It is an awesome event and will really wake you up to this horrible cancer taking so many lives. If you've never done it, you should - very emotional my first time to see all whose memories were being honored!