Letter to those I love

Dear Brent and Dad,

I know my illness hurts the two of you most of all, and I need to let you know about the step I took today. I will never be cured, but it helps to know that I can at least give the appearance that I am. I vacuumed my van. It took 15 minutes to get the stuff out of it and vacuum it. It didn't take as long as I thought. It looks really nice, and for a moment I think, "I really should keep this clean." But, I know better. I am so sorry I am such a disappointment to the two of you, along with all people everywhere that cannot carpool with me to anything.

Ouch!

Poor Tyler. He had to have major dental work today. When he went for his cleaning last month, they were shocked to see his mouth full of cavities. Huge cavities that weren't there 6 months ago. His teeth were basically falling apart. This was probably caused by a high fever I had early in my pregnancy with him. They had planned to take care of one side of his mouth today and do the other side in a month.

We got there this morning and he was a nervous wreck. He carried his little stuffed dog Lucy with him. He felt silly doing this at age 7, but he said he really needed Lucy. They thought they were going to have to sedate him, but he was so still with the gas they just did that. They pulled one molar and had to do a root canal on one side. He was doing so well that they decided to go ahead and do the other side. They originally thought that the other side was REALLY bad. They pulled a molar and and saw that all of the other cavities that showed up on the x-rays were not really there. Dr. Rowland said he had never seen anything like it. He said they were just terribly formed teeth. His bottom teeth are perfect. So strange.

He was given Tylenol with codeine and I was expecting a quiet day of sleep with some possible tv watching. Ha. He acts like someone just took a splinter out of his finger. I would be dead in the bed. He's done a puzzle, built a lego space vehicle, and various other things. I took a nap. I was worn out. I was so nervous this morning that I broke out in hives.

I think the tooth fairy should leave big bucks for this ordeal! For mom, too!

Christmas 2007

Last minute Christmas

I have felt that this entire holiday season has swirled be me in a giant whirlwind. I just haven't felt in the Christmas spirit...not in a humbug sort of way, just that I couldn't believe that it was already here. I told Brent last night that I will not work next summer. I feel that my entire summer was spent working and I missed out on so much. I guess I never got my summer out! It's Christmas and all I want to do is work in the yard. I am determined to get myself back on schedule with the rest of the world.

I have muddled myself through this month for my kids sake...no sense in them having a bad Christmas! I am posting some picture of my Santa tree and my family tree and some of the marshmallow fondant cookies I made.

We did have a nice Christmas Day and the kids got so much junk. We stuffed ourselves and took naps and watched old home movies. It was fun and we even played two rounds of dominos...all I could squeeze out of the old folks.

I think I am going to leave all my decorations up for another month since I feel like Christmas snuck up on me! Don't tell Brent!

What on earth???

I found this present under the Christmas tree from my dear husband. I have various guesses about what it could be. Some of my ideas are:

* A watering can
* A tennis racket
* A "Club" for my van
* A rolled up "Fathead" of Mike Miller
* A baton, along with lessons
* A skillet
* Some sort of broom, mop, etc.

Any guesses from you???

Santa Visit

Here are the pictures of the kids talking with Santa. I am so mad..the picture of them holding their list is out of focus, so I can't read it! I guess Santa knows!

Dealing

After I posted about Maddie, I went in my room and shut the door and just laid on my bed and cried. I have been a terrible mom this morning, snapping at the kids because I am hurting. I prayed that I could just deal with this and be a better mom. Emily opened my door and came over and asked what I was doing and I told her I was praying. She said, "About Maddie? She's dying. Tyler told me last night." She just sat on the bed beside me and rubbed my back. She talked about Maddie sharing her sleeping bag with her on movie night since Emily didn't have one. I am glad she remembers things that I don't.

I lost my camera for a week. It was in my car...they don't call me Fred Sanford for nothing. I will post Santa pictures soon.

Sweet Maddie

Our precious friend Madelyn has been given a couple of weeks to live. We heard the news yesterday. I was so worried about telling Tyler and Emily, but Tyler already heard from one of his friends and was very matter-of-fact about it. It didn't make talking about it any easier, but he was more of a comfort to me than I was to him. Just please pray for Brandi, Neal, and the kids during this time. Maddie is really hurting and not feeling well and that is so hard on everyone.

My friend Sharon and I were talking the other day about how when you live in Memphis, you WILL have children in your life die from cancer. With St. Jude being here, it is just a part of life. I know it will make my kids (and me) stronger and give our faith legs to stand on. Just pray for our sweet Maddie to have a comfortable end to this 4 year battle.

What a week!

We have been going non-stop the past few days. Emily and I had our last day of school Thursday. We partied all day long. I was overwhelmed by all the presents the kids gave me. I have never gotten to experience that before...resource teachers don't really get presents. It was very nice and I greatly appreciated it.

Emily and I stayed home all day on Friday. I have not done that in so long. It was wonderful. I even took a nap! We cleaned Emily's closet and did many loads of laundry. Friday night, we went to the mall and saw Santa. Emily was scared to death, but she did it. We walked around the chaos a bit, and it was crazy. Too many people out. Tyler had some money burning a hole in his pocket. After looking at every item in Build-a-bears' inventory, he settled on a camo tent for all his little dogs. Emily got a High School musical purse for one of her bears.

Saturday was a day that will go down in history. OK, not really, but it was REALLY fun. Pottery Barn had their first ever warehouse sale. They opened up a part of their Memphis warehouse (You just think it comes from San Francisco!) and everything was at least 60% off. Kathy, Lisa, Clare and I were there when they opened. It was POURING down rain. I got some great stuff. I got the mission craft table with 4 chairs and the under-table storage for the playroom, a window seat shelf for Tyler's room, and a shelf/locker/storage thing for coats, backpacks, etc. It took my van and Kathy's van with all seats down to get it all home. Kathy was looking for a bed, but they didn't have it. Everyone got a great buy, though. After that, we went to the Scholastic warehouse for their teacher sale. I got some books, but I was limited on funds due to my furniture spree. Our home group Christmas party was Saturday night. It was nice to have everyone over. I just love our home group.

Sunday was a typical Sunday, but I did get out to do some shopping after church. Wow. People are crazy. Our musical was last night and it was great. The kids did a great job. Emily wanted to know why God didn't come.

I will post some picture of Santa when I find my camera!

Worst Day EVER

Tyler tends to be dramatic and whenever the smallest bad thing happens, he says that it is the worst day ever.

Today was my worst day ever. OK, not really, but I came close to pulling my hair out several times. The kids at school have gotten bitten by the Christmas Bug and were bonkers today. I think I said, "Sit on your bottom" a zillion times. Plus, it was 70 degrees today and the air was not working at school Why should it? It's December. Emily's new stool softener started working during nap today and she came back from the bathroom commando...had to borrow panties from Kennedy. Ballet was fine. I worked on my Christmas cards the whole time. Then we went to Becky's to pick up Tyler. Emily had another accident there. Then it took us over an hour to get home. There was an accident on interstate (it wasn't Emily). Tyler was carsick and Emily kept yelling that she had to poop again. I read every Christmas book I had in the car and we sang every Christmas song we know. We finally got home and I put Em in the tub and made grilled cheese sandwiches. Brent has a board meeting tonight, so I am getting these monkeys to bed by myself. But, they are my monkeys and I have a nice warm house for them to sleep in and we have full bellies, which is more than some people can say. I just need to thank God for my great life and go to bed and start all over again tomorrow. Maybe it will be the best day ever.

High School flashback

I had a total flashback to high school today. We were painting Christmas ornaments today at school and I picked up a brand new bottle of red paint and shook it up. The top was not on and paint went all over my new Christmas sweater(yes, I am a teacher.) all the way down to my shoes. I borrowed a paint shirt from the 3 year old class.

When I was in high school, I was in lots of art classes. It was my escape. However, there was a girl in one of my art classes named Mollie that talked non-stop about anything and everything and bugged me to death and made me dread this particular class. Everything she did drove me crazy. One day, she picked up a gallon bottle of yellow paint and shook it. No top, of course. I had paint from the top of my head, all the way down my new Bongo jeans, to the toes of my brand new Keds. I didn't say a word. I just walked out of class, out of school, and got into my car. I didn't even bother checking out. It was about a 2 minute drive home. We NEVER locked our back door. Our washer and dryer were in a little room off the porch that led into the kitchen. I stripped down to nothing and threw all of my clothes in the washer. I headed inside to change, and THE DOOR WAS LOCKED!!! There was a dirty clothes basket on the floor containing 2 items...a cropped pajama shirt of Becky's and a pair of my dad's shorts. My only choices. I put on my make-shift outfit and got back in my car and drove to my mom's work. I actually got out of the car and walked into my mom's classroom to get her house key. Try explaining to your mom why you are not at school and you are half-dressed in her workplace. I did make it back by the end of art class.

Today wasn't so bad. At least the paint shirt had buttons.

Funny things heard around the Patterson house

Tyler: What language do they speak in Oklahoma? (He meant Guatamala!)

Emily: When I am a teenager, will I go to East High School? (From HSM)

Tyler: When I am in high school, will my cafeteria look like the one from High School Musical?

Tyler: When a deer grows really big antlers, is it a moose?

Emily: Do you promise that Santa will leave me alone if I am asleep?

Tyler: I wonder if they have TVs in Texas.