Hello again and moving on...

In an attempt to revamp and start over I am moving here...

Carly Parker

Our friends, Scott and Miki Parker, who live 4 houses down from us are going through one horrible nightmare. Their 7 year old daughter Carly has a tumor behind her nasal cavity. They discovered this, this past Wednesday right before Thanksgiving and have been in Birmingham since Wednesday night. Yesterday she went into surgery for a biopsy and placement of a chemo access port. After many, many scans and tests they have determined that it has NOT spread to any other part of her body. That is a huge blessing!! As soon as a final "perminent stage" has been determined they will start intensive treatment with radiation and chemotherapy. Please pray, pray, pray, and check out her website by clicking on her name at the top of this entry.



This family means a lot to us and were one of the first people to help make Auburn really feel like home. Peyton and Carly became fast friends and have been playing everyday after school since the beginning of the school year. She is really missing her friend but is writing her messages and sending pictures to her everyday. She was able to visit the night before her surgery so she has not seen how sick she is going to be yet. Pray for strength for this little girl and for her parents.




This was taken Sunday night when we brought Peyton to visit.

Henry's Visit

Kimberly's new job requires her to make several trips to Montgomery. Lucky for me she has decided to bring Henry along to keep me company! I usually just have to watch him race through his first year of milestones from Kodakgallery.com with far to few trips to Florence in between. Having him all to myself for the past two days has been such a treat!

Here are just a few of him and Peyton playing.

Henry's visit

Miss Independent

After all weekend of begging to ride the bus I gave in to riding it home.

I paced the sidewalk for a good 20 minutes. I am sure if anyone was watching they thought I was crazy! I was the only parent out there until the last 3 minutes! I was so sure that something dreadful would happen. Any number of scenarios raced through my head.....kidnapping, getting off at the wrong stop, hiding under the seat, the bus wrecking, the bus catching on fire.... it goes on and on.

Bear in mind that we live 2 miles from the school, the bus never gets above 35 miles per hour, hers is the first stop, and two of her friends from the neighborhood ride the same bus.

Yes, I am fully aware that I was being "that mom"; the one who is sure to make eyes roll at every major "know when to let your child go" moment but come on, she just looks so small compared to that HUGE bus!

And SURPRISE, SURPRISE, She did just as she was supposed to do!
Just look at that huge smile!

First Day of School!

Who knew this day would sneak up on us so fast. She has been so excited about it for months. I went in to wake her up this morning and she was already dressed!! Wes's office pushed back his appointments and Dr Freeman even rounded for him early this morning so he could go with us! For the past few weeks we have been making sure we had everything checked off: outfit picked out, backpack (thanks Carrie for telling us where to find the perfect size), school t-shirt and supply pack bought, and lunches paid for. Tuesday night we met her teacher, Ms Herndon. She seems really sweet and has been teaching since the early 80s. She took each childs picture and put it on a board for the kids to see. She even helped the kids introduce themselves as most everyone was just standing around staring at each other.

And I still feel like I am missing something. Some question not asked, paper not filled out, one last important item yet to be purchased. Oh well, there is a parent/teacher talk tonight so I will just stress about it then!

Here she is right before we left.

Getting her backpack just right.

This is outside her classroom door right before she walked in for the first time.

She was told to find her name, hang up her backpack and get out her snack for the day.

After putting on her nametag and signing up for lunch she had to find the seat with her name on it.

Then she was able to choose a "table work". Of course she went straight for the art table.

This is in the hall right outside her room.

She is in the Purple Pod and it is decorated in a Fiesta theme

Front Entrance

The playgound...of course is Peyton's favorite part!

She was great when we left. I know she will have a fabulous day. I'm just not sure what I am going to do with myself!

Six Years!!

How fast time can fly! Even though most of August 4th 2001 is a blur, ( I don't even remember the song I walked down the isle to) I do remember it being the happiest day of my life! I think back now and can't believe all the things we've been through in just that short time. Peyton was born. Wes went through and finished med school and residency. We have moved 5 times in 3 different cities. We bought our first house and Wes got his first real job. And who knows what's next. Hopefully now we stay put for a while and enjoy raising Peyton in Auburn.

We Have Joined the Wii Craze

And oh how much fun....


Wes had mentioned this new gaming system to me months ago but I dismissed it as yet another "boy toy". Something similar to the Play Station and X Box he had owned in the past.

Then Calvin, Peyton's new friend got one for his birthday and she was hooked right away. They had so much fun using the interactive controller as a bat, bowling ball, golf club, hockey stick...the games seemed endless. Missaha said it was our generation's version of "family game night" and I would certainly have to agree. I haven't been interested in Nintendo since I was a kid trying to save the princess in Super Mario Brothers but this really looked fun and easy to do.

So....after looking for a couple of days at different stores we finally found it at Walmart. There are two left at the one on Pepperell Pkwy in case any one's interested. We all stayed up until after 11pm playing with it. It really is the most original idea any body's had in years. My favorite part is that you don't sit down the entire time you play it (the boxing game is a real workout). I had trouble getting Peyton to turn it off mainly because I didn't want to stop either!