Longings...

Since some of you may not know, I have a brother who died 2 weeks after his 18th birthday. He had cancer and went through many things a teenage boy should never have to deal with. I love him dearly.


So...the 5th anniversary of his death is on Sunday and it hit me like a brick this morning. You know when you've lost someone close important dates tend to make you cry a lot? Well, in our family, it's not usually the day that's so bad, but the day before is the worst. I realize I'm a few days early, but knowing me, it probably won't cross my mind on Sunday, so I'll cry today instead. I also realized that my parents are driving part of the way to New Orleans for a cruise on Sunday and I thought it was rather fitting. I don't know if they planned it that way or not, but I'm glad they are finally going on a cruise. Hopefully this isn't morbid, but I've seen 2 people die in my life. It's not a fun thing to be around, and I think the hospice/ICU nurses are just amazing people. They have to be able to deal with so much in order to help their patients and the respective families when they are dying. We had a wonderful nurse who completely reeked of smoke and David told her she should leave because he couldn't handle her smell. After that, she tried very hard to quit smoking, but I've never heard if she was successful. I hope she was for many reasons.




On a less morbid note, Jeff and I went to Shreveport and managed to not come home broke! We didn't even gamble. We did go to the casino, but it was so smoke-filled that we didn't stay very long. Our hotel was pretty nice, despite a lingering smell of smoke. I think I've decided that when you stay in a casino hotel, that the rooms will invariably be smoking rooms. We probably should have at least asked if they had any no smoking rooms. Well, in any case, we stayed on the 20th floor, shopped a little, saw a movie, and just hung out. We think Rachel enjoyed herself with Nana and Papa too.

Partial view from the room...




If for some reason you've read the blog and see me on Sunday, I would please ask that you not mention David, because I do have to teach Sunday School. I'd rather not have to answer questions about why I'm crying from several 6 year olds. I appreciate your candor in this matter.

Luxurious Relaxation

We are so excited about our upcoming trip. We haven't left Rachel for more than a few hours at a time since she was born, so we are getting to take some leisure time for ourselves and leaving Rachel with her grandparents!! Yea!! We thought it might be cool to stay in Shreveport, even though we don't gamble, just to say we've been to/seen a casino. We'll fill you in on some of the details when we come back, like was it worth the trip, and are casinos all they're cracked up to be.

Rachel is one amazing baby. Of course I'm a little biased, but we're so thankful for her every day. She pulls up on everything and tries to climb, but we don't have anything in the house conducive to climbing upwards, so she hasn't been very successful. She can climb stairs when we visit friends/family who have them in the house, so beware. We also love that she is able to walk along all of the furniture. We're one step closer to having her walking! I would guess that if you're a parent, that at least one person has told you that it seems like you can't wait until they can walk and talk and once they can do that you would like for the to just sit down and be quiet. We've heard that a few times, and I'm sure there will be times when I will want her to be still, but it seems like it would be so much easier to help my child if she could tell me what she wants rather than just crying, or throwing a fit.

Well, it's hard to believe it's already the middle of July. I will be so sad when Jeff has to go back to work. I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer. We hope to get some new pictures up soon.

Large Mouth Bass

So in the past 2 weekends we've been to 2 different family reunions. Of course they have been with my (Teri) side of the family. Jeff has met many random people that he didn't know, we stretched Rachel to stay awake for longer periods of time, and had a little fun in the meantime. Last weekend we met the Hollowells in Paris, Texas that is. We played some games ate some good food, and went swimming at the hotel. This weekend we spent time in Athens, again Texas that is, for the Wilson family reunion. We spent some time with our Mamaw and her family. Jeff and my dad got to fish twice and we shot off some of Jeff's fireworks. It will be nice to not have as many explosives around the house! HA! We do have some proof of the fishing expedition, as seen below.

We have also started having dinners for some of our friends on Wednesday nights and we had fun this past week. We borrowed the idea from some friends at church (thanks Nobles and Happy Birthday tomorrow Justin!!) and we like having people come visit us. We are excited about this week since we're having Mexican food. We hope lots of people come and share with us! Hope this finds everyone doing well in this summer heat!