CC's Graduation and our greatest blessings.

We have the greatest friends in the world. CC has gotten so much love this week for Graduation. McKenzie went and spent the night with her friend Mikala the other night. These two have been together since first grade. Kamma her Mom has watched and helped CC over the years, kicking her in the booty when she needed it but also ready with a hug at any time. CC could not wait to go get her hug. The girls had a blast as always. McKenzie went with her friend Sam this afternoon. They planned to fix dinner and we went by to check on them and say hi. Sammy and her parents hooked us up with the best Spaghetti I have ever eaten. They have a garden just like what we have been working towards. Kevin has a bunch of baby plants to work with now thanks to them and I am going to try really hard not to kill a peach tree they trusted me with. The tree has a pretty good head start, it is about 4 ½ or 5 foot tall so maybe I will be able to grow something too, and mine will be bigger. McKenzie and Sammy have also been together since 1st grade. I am so glad they have stuck together. Victoria, Sammy’s older sister was there cheering for CC even though they didn’t get their invitation till the same day as the Graduation. I am also thankful for Bre and her mom Susan. We have not known them as long but they are two of the sweetest and most loving people we have been blessed to have in our lives. We didn’t get to sit with them but they were there cheering for CC as she walked across that stage. Devin is a sweet friend that also came to support CC. She remembered were she parked so after the ceremony she went ahead of us to Hooters and got us on the waiting list. She also thought to bring flowers so I have them drying to make the globe ornament for CC’s big day to add to the Christmas tree. Becky my best friend started this and I hope to continue with it as the girls continue to pass milestones. She saved the flowers from mine and Kevin’s wedding and surprised me with them for Christmas. She had dried the flowers and put them inside of glass ornament globes to hang on our tree. We had a sweet visit with PK, Michaela and Josh while fishing, not realizing a tornado was on its way. We are missing hanging out. As summer is almost here I hope that things slow down a bit so we can enjoy just hanging out and having a cookout. Brenda, James and their sweet girls came and yelled for CC. This meant the world to Cease. Mrs. Butts is her one teacher, you know we all have that one that cared and made a major difference in our lives. Mrs. Butts made a difference in all of ours. She spun CC around and showed the world including CC that she was amazing. They picked out the perfect gift for CC, the most precious charm bracelet and her first charm, the 2014 charm for graduation. This is extra special to her because she remembers Mrs. Butts charm bracelet and how very many charms she has and how special each one is to her. I think this will be an easy suggestion from now on when everyone wants to know what to get CC for Christmas or her Birthday. If you don’t already know CC, she is a bit hard to shop for. Many family members that have been there for us through everything came and enjoyed the big day with Kevin, McKenzie and I. Andrew and Cortni, Keith, and all of CC’s Grandparents made it with big smiles. Nanny, Paw Paw Bruce and Charlotte, Jerry and Diane, Jenny, and Chris. We love you all so much. I am so proud of my CC. She worked hard and got it done. She is ready for bigger and harder challenges now and I cant wait to see her reach every goal she sets.

Family and Friends = Loved and Blessings.

The world might inflict wounds, but your home should heal. Make your home a safe oasis for your Spouse, Children, Friends, and Family. With your words and your actions, create a life-giving, "drama free" atmosphere where many happy memories can be created together. I adore the fact that our house is the family get together place. Friends have said that when everything goes wrong they come over and end up laughing before too long. I love that our families, including our friends have melted together so well. The location is not as important as the love felt when we all get together. We had a wonderful Spring Break and enjoyed sweet family time. Tomorrow we will spend the day with family and friend celebrating McKenzie's 13th Birthday.

Blessed with great Doctors

CC has had a migraine since last night. We did all the normal stuff and it just would not ease up. I called her Neurologist and had to leave a message. He had already left for the day. A little more time went by and CC started getting worse. Kevin and I took her to the ER Clinic where her Pediatrician is. He saw her pretty quick and called in something to help get everything to calm down. We got her home and put to bed and Kenzie got home from school. She all of the sudden had a fever and sore throat. I thought wow ok now what, it is almost 6pm on Friday. Kevin and I went ahead and ran her back up to the same Doc and signed in. The lady said our Doc had already left. I was disappointed because I like to use only her Doctors so that they have all the info about the Type 1 Diabetes and everything. We went ahead and sat down to wait for the stranger to see my baby. I heard our Doc say “Kevin” in a little bit of a concerned voice. I turned around and in front of a packed waiting room of people who had been waiting for the stranger on duty to see them for at least an hour, our Doc tells the lady at the counter to take McKenzie off the list he will go ahead and see her before heading out for the night. I am so thankful because that kept us from being exposed to more germs in the waiting room. We also did not have to leave CC for too long. I have to tell you though I was a bit worried walking out back through that same waiting room with all the same people sitting waiting to be seen after we were all done. We got some ugly looks that is for sure. I felt bad that they were all still waiting but I needed to get home to check on my CC. I got a surprise call back from CC’s neurologist at about 6:30pm he asked how she was and what all we had done so far. I told him what was called in by her Pedi Doc. He said that was perfect and that he would check his voice mail throughout the weekend if we needed anything. I am truly thankful and we are so blessed to have sweet doctors who know what they are doing. Once everyone gets well we will be baking something yummy for each of them. I hope they both feel better tomorrow.

Eye's

I was born with Congenital Bilateral Optic Nerve Colobomas in both of my eyes (misshaped pupils). My vision is 20/200 and 20/300. CC was born with the same thing but only in her left eye. She was also born with Microphthalmia in her left eye. (Small Eye) She has no vision from her left eye but better than 20/20 from her right eye. She had her first prosthetic eye made when she was a week old. By starting this treatment so early in her life her face has grown perfectly. Without this treatment the eye socket would not have grown and the left side of her face would be sunk in. Dr. Randy has been such a blessing to us. He has been there from day one. He and CC are buddies.

What the girls are reading.

Mckenzie started a new book last night it is one of my all time favorites, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. She is so enthusiastic about it already. I love to see her face light up when she realizes one of the characters has made an incredibly dumb mistake or an inside joke with another character. She thinks that it is hilarious that the president of a country in this story is addicted to a soap opera. We have her read out loud to me and we talk about the story imagining what the characters see and feel. We do this with CC also. She started a new book tonight. It is a different kind of story but I think she is getting into it just as much. Her book is Smashed by Koren Zailckas. Kevin and I were able to go listen to her speak at Tech a couple of years ago. Her goal is to educate young people about the danger of peer pressure and this book is about her own alcohol addiction. CC read till she could no longer hold her eyes open. McKenzie read till she could no longer talk then she made Kevin read a few pages before she was snoring. Lol I think she will have to back up a page or two tomorrow. I am thankful that they are enjoying this time and that Kevin is such a wonderful dad and influence. We all three love to listen to him read exciting books because he gives each character their own voice and makes it so easy and fun to follow. When we first read Bel Canto, I kept Kevin up really late reading to me because I could not wait to find out what happened next.

Ten years ago today (9/11/2001) I was sitting in my living room in Jacksboro. I had taken CC to school and McKenzie, a year old and I were watching TV when all the channels started showing footage of the towers. My heart dropped and the fear set in for all of the people fighting for their lives, the brave men and women who risked their lives to save them and as the day went on I became more and more scared for my best friend Kevin, who was in Kuwait. I had talked to him on the phone the night before and he was going to call that afternoon. I did not hear from him for two weeks. They had locked the camp down and no phone calls or e mails were allowed. I stayed close to home in case he was able to call. CC knew something was wrong and wanted to know why we had not talked to Kevin on the video cam on the computer. I told her he was just real busy. She said yeah and then would ask again the next day. His time there was extended. I thank the Lord each and every day that he is home safe.  Never Forget.  God Bless America.

We have some work to do.

We just got back from McKenzie’s check up with Dr. Varma.  This was the highest A1C ,(8.4) we have gotten other than when Mckenzie was DKA when all this started in 2006. We had to have, a bit more of a grown up talk then what we usually do.  McKenzie's stance on it all was that she is going to pay closer attention to what she is doing. We will get it down together. We have the greatest team anyone could wish for backing us. We will be on the phone with Nurse Dreama over the next week adjusting the settings in the pump and helping us to tweak everything a bit. I am about to cry. I know things will be ok and we will get this under control but things just got a little more real, if that is possible.