Winter Beach

Momma rest is hard to come by. The opportunity presents itself frequently, but the variables involved don't often allow you to shed all concern and let yourself restore. When the kiddo is with a friend, you're certain that everything is fine but your mind stays in motion wondering if she is behaving and being a sweet girl. When she's with her dad, I know she's happy but I always miss her footsteps and snuggles so badly. But when she's with me, and we are with my momma, I don't have a care in the world and I'm able to get into a catatonic state of relaxation. 

Momma's are just the very best. 

A few weekends ago, we got an invitation to join Mom and Dad at the beach and we jumped on it. And long story short, it was exactly what we needed. 

A very happy Boopster.

"The most powerful way to teach a daughter how to enjoy life is to let her see her mother do the same." -Meg Meeker

Treasure hunts and walks on the beach.

A very happy Londie Lu Lu Lane

Adding a halo to her sand angel

An unidentified washed up fish. Any guesses? 

This is as far as Dad made it to the beach but he and Archie came to the balcony to wave their hellos to us! 

Catatonic Rest. 

Beach Babe Soul Sisters!

London took this picture and I think it turned out great! My goodness, I love my sweet momma. She knows how to fill my tank the best. I know I'll look back and be forever grateful for these cherished memories of walking the beach, holding her hand, and chatting the days away.

Putting these same memories in place for the smallest one as well! :) 

Surfer Dude

Every proud and happy feeling you can feel. I love the spirit in her! She is endlessly fun!

When mom is on hardcore rest mode, you bury yo' self at the beach!

I saw the sky changing colors one afternoon so Lu and I walked down to the beach to see if we could see the sun set. It was so beautiful. Then it got MORE beautiful. Then it got even MORE BEAUTIFULER!! :) 

It was like God heard us ohh and ahh over how glorious it was and he kept turning the volume knob up to show us what he could make! We were both screaming 'MOM, LOOK!' and 'BABY, LOOK!!'

Just about nothing does my soul more good than watching a sunset. It thrills me and leaves me all tingly and excited afterwards!

Dad wanted to take us all to eat beignets before we headed home on Sunday. London has never had them before so it was fun to laugh at people accidentally shooting powder sugar everywhere!   

It was a fabulous weekend. I love winter beach. I love my parents. I love the beach and the God who created it all. What a beautiful thing to stand before the waves and the sky that reach as far as the eye can see and know your own smallness. What a satisfying feeling to be humbled before his beauty and know that not a detail is ever missed. In beauty and gentleness, He's seen to all of it. 

Thank you for this well spent life, mom and dad. 

A Busy Halloween Weekend 2015

We had a fun Halloween weekend this year! It kicked off with a Kindergarten field trip to Old Baker Farm, a working farm and pumpkin patch. I decided to take the day off and tag along! I'm glad I did because it was a GORGEOUS day! London held my hand all day and was thrilled I was with her. :) They say this enthusiasm will fade, so for now, I will bask in it! 

Picking cotton

Mrs. Baker teaching the kids all kinds of cool stuff about cotton! She was a great educator!

Mrs. Kavanagh, our awesome teacher! She is so laid back and funny! I loved being around her all day!

Reminds me of home :)

What a perfectly lovely day!

The next day was Caden's last football game of the season. I haven't made it to a game yet so we were not going to miss the last one! Look at this stud!

Squeezing each other half to death! 

Killing it!

Swoon!

We all went to Cracker Barrel after the game and had our first game of checkers. We bought a cheap board later in the day and played all weekend. She's figuring out strategy so it's fun to play her and not go easy on her! :)

I taught a Halloween themed spin ride last week and had some leftover lollipops. I was cleaning up and heard London singing so I came out to this... {video}. She was handing out lollipops to our neighbors. She is the BEST. 

Our trick-or-treating crew! Check out Lucas in the red, blow up Baymax costume. It was hilarious! He waddled from house to house just like the boy from 'A Christmas Story' who was bundled up in the huge winter coat... we giggled the whole night over it! 

Unfortunately the rain moved in and it was a wash out! We were able to get an hour of trick-or-treating in though, so they got plenty of candy and had fun with their friends! Soaking wet success!

On Sunday we rested. We needed it. We went to the dollar movie later in the afternoon and watched 'Inside Out' which is interesting. It was about a middle school aged girl working through an emotional  time of life. During the movie she loses the section of her brain that is about silly, little kid antics. There's another part of her brain that houses her imagination. London looked up and said, 'that's kind of like Imagination Mouse", which is Lu's made up friend who lives inside of her brain and thinks of all kinds of wacky, cool things to do.  She REALLY believes he is in there, pulling memories out of her brain and putting funny words in her mouth. Afterwards, she got up and ran straight to the front of the theater for a dance party... because that's just what we do after movies. 

I watched her twirling and giggling and reaching for me to dance along and was temporarily paralyzed by the magnitude of that EXACT minute. The minute she still believes. The minute she's not embarrassed to dance with reckless abandon. That minute is sacred and precious and documented...because one day we will grow too big for the silly kid antics and I want to remember the magic in these magnificent little moments. 

What a gift it is to be a momma.

Glow stick abstracts

A few weeks ago we ended up with a little spare time before bedtime and a super bright glowstick. We pulled out the camera and decided to play around and see what we came up with. Here were the results of glow stick fun! A tripod would be helpful because you can see all the blurs in the back ground from London bouncing, but you get the idea. Ain't nobody going to spend money on gear when all we're doing is blogging about our daily life! 

The following weekend, Amy Sherrer and Presley were here for a visit so we went over for dinner and fun, armed with a ton of glow sticks! I thought the kids would have fun seeing their light show caught on film! Most all of these are of Caden, Lizzy, and London.... acting totally spastic! 

This is Presley's masterpiece! :) 

This is Lauren writing 'MOM' with glow sticks

London only, I believe...

Caden only...

Lu only again, i think...

The three bigs. I liked how you could see London's silhouette standing in front of the twins.

I liked this one the best! 

Still growing!

I guess the majority of you guys know that I have a 'broken back'. We decided last month that it's time to straighten my snake of a back on up! The short version of my story is that I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was a freshman in high school. I went to get fitted for my homecoming dress and the lady who was fitting me told Mom that my hips weren't lined up. I went to Dad's office, took a picture of my bones, and sure enough, I was crooked. I believe at the time, the degree of my curvature was only about 25 degrees but I honestly can't remember. I went to Jackson, got a mold made of my body, and came home with 'Bartholomew', the back brace. It was just the worst... at first. It was made of hard plastic that was about 1/4 inch thick and had holes drilled through it so it wouldn't be so hot. In the back, it came down to the middle of my bottom, and the top was right under my chest, which was like the ultimate push up bra and made me super self conscious since I was an awkward 14 year old! I sat up so straight, it was comical. Everyone would walk by me and 'knock' my brace because it sounded like knocking on a piece of wood. There was no hope for blue jeans looking normal and I wore t-shirts all the time because I had these weird tiny boobs shoved up right under my clavicle! Much to everyone's amusement, when I took the brace off, my entire torso was polka dotted from all the drill holes. Lord knows. Now, writing it out, I'm super proud of myself for retaining any self esteem during that time! I made braces look like NO BIG DEAL! It could be worse! You could be the "awkwardly straight, polka dotted, plastic girl'. :) How have I not gotten therapy for this?!

I was instructed to wear the brace for 23 hours a day. I hated it at first. I was locked in this contraption and couldn't move much. Eventually I got used to it and learned to take comfort for how it supported me. When I was able to stop wearing it, I missed it when I slept. Ole Bart had become a part of me and I was sad to see him go. (But I got over the sadness super quickly because NORMAL TEENAGE LIFE AGAIN!)

2014 X-Ray: Curve at 48 degrees

2015 X-Ray: Over the 50 degree curve (I'm not sure the specific degree) 

It's time to add new parts now, and I'm ready for the new version of me. We talked about the impending surgery last year and I wasn't at all ready. I was terrified and spent the better part of the year mentally working through every possible sad feeling of what this surgery would mean. I'm thankful for this worrisome year, because now I have dealt with those thoughts and they are behind me. The Lord was gracious to give me this year so now that the time has come, those fears aren't fresh or valid.  They have been weighed against the good and concluded that pain is not worth ignoring. 

Now, I am honestly excited to get this fixed. I'm praying that there are no complications, but I've had time to speak with so many other scoliosis patients that have had successful surgeries and pain free lives because of it. Now I am a cheerleader for all the good that will come from this! 

What is going to happen: from what I've read, they will take pieces of bone from a cadaver and fuse these bones to my spinal chord from my chest down to the 2nd to last vertebrae. (diagram below) 

They'll add these screws and rods along the full length of the curve to stabalize my back until the fusing process is complete, which should take 2-3 months. I'll keep the rods in my back though, they won't be removed once fusion is complete. 

This picture with the screws showing does make me want to gag a little. Blech. I guess I'll have about 20 of these in me by the end and that feels scary! 

Dad says I'll be fine. They are just going to fill me full of tinker toys! 

For the time being, we are making fun of my ailment, because what else can you do? I imagine I'll be like the bionic woman who will be able to run with lightening fast speed since I'll be full of magic titanium rods! The doctor said that I'll be taller after the surgery to which all my friends groaned and threw their hands up because OF COURSE the tall girl would get to grow taller! How unfair! :) 

Plus, I get to take a month off work, can't pick up anything heavy, and have post op instructions to 'get outside and walk as much as possible'. Y'all. This is going to be great! 

(All kidding aside, would you all be so kind as to pray for the doctor's and nurses hands and me during surgery and recovery? I'd be so grateful! Thank you! Also, surgery isn't scheduled until January 8th, so we have plenty of time to prepare!)