Visitors!

We had a very, very fun week with Nanny (my mom) and Great Gran (her mom) this week. They arrived Wednesday and didn't leave until today.

We played, shopped and just basically played with the kiddos. We all had a great time...

We will miss them... but hope they will come back soon!


A very entertaining moment during their trip:
My mom accidentally scraped Audrey with her fingernail - Audrey was laying on her and my mom's fingernail got the back of her shirt (not even any skin). I should also mention Audrey was beyond tired at this point...
Anyway, Audrey is hysterically crying, like she's been mauled. She comes and lays down with me, calms down, and my mom comes in and apologizes to Audrey. She also asks, "Audrey, you're not mad at Nanny, are you?"
Audrey replies, "No, Nanny, I'm not mad at you. Just a little upset."
As my mom and I are cracking up, Audrey rolls over and goes to sleep.

She is a piece of work, that one ;)

Yay for Distractions!

My mom and nanny (aka 'Nanny' and 'Miss Great Big') were in town Tuesday thru Thursday of this week. We enjoyed seeing them so much - especially Audrey... Who now misses them a whole lot :(

I am now down to 7 weeks (a little less, it was 7 weeks yesterday) until the tumor is gone. I am so ready to get this sucker out...

JT is making incredible progress at school still... His teachers stop me at least once a week to tell me they see him doing something - playskills, language, etc - that he wasn't doing the week before. What an awesome, awesome feeling!!!

I hope everything is going well for everyone!

Bye, Miss Great Big!

Great Big Nanny came on Wednesday, and left this morning. We were SO sad to see her go...

JT asked for 'cookie' a few times today... And he's referring to her. So, he calls her Cookie, and Audrey calls her Great Big Nanny - or 'Miss Great Big'. If you know my grandmother, you see the humor in this. She's roughly 5'2", and maybe 100 lbs. Seriously, there is nothing great big about her (except her personality)!

So, we're on our own... We will miss her a whole bunch... But I have a feeling she'll be back soon. She left a bag full of shoes and clothes at our house (lol, now I know exactly where I get it from).

As far as the Duzan fam... JT starts school tomorrow! I am going crazy... But I know he will like it. At least for the most part ;) And I need some time alone with my Audrey... She sometimes gets the rough end of the deal being the sister of a high energy autistic boy... But she is so sweet. I just want her to know how loved and important she is (JT, too, but he seems to know that very well lately, lol).

The Hubs's store has been doing some crazy awesome things, and he is loving his job. Dillard's is giving them a little more freedom to help clear old merchandise, and everyone knows that The Hubs loves coming up with 'fun' ideas - and he gets SO excited! It's great to see him so pumped up about work, and I know that helps his employees and the company in general to have someone who really is excited about what he does.

I met with my pastor (Pastor Carol) this week, and really had a great discussion with her. She is such a sweet person... It just solidified my decision that this is the church for us. I can't say enough about Emmanuel Presbyterian - the people are wonderful, the message is kind and helpful, and overall people just want to be better and do better in God's eyes. The best church I have ever attended by far.

I am dealing with Bob better every day... I have realized that in my life, I have faced plenty of challenges. Every time I fall, God catches me. Even when I may not realize it, God is always there. It is SO hard for me to realize I have no control... But truly, in life, we don't have control over - well, hardly anything. I saw a sign on a church on the way here that says 'Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.' This is SO true. I cannot control Bob, my insurance company, my doctors or anything else. I can control how I react to this situation and what I do with myself. I choose to believe that God is in the details... Somewhere. I have a hard time closing my eyes and waiting for God's safety net... 'Let go and let God' is not easy. But I know I will be okay - it is just going to have to play out the way it's meant to play out.

So, all in all, we are doing fantastic. We are happy, busy and exhausted... A wonderful combination :-)

I hope that everyone is doing well...

Back on Track

Mom's been feeling under the weather for the past few weeks. But, now that the appendix is gone (along with 2 abdominal adhesions), things are looking up!

Thanks to nanny and great big nanny for coming to stay with us while mom was down and out.

The surgery was quick and relatively pain free. I had it Wednesday, and it's Sunday and there's zero pain. All in all a giant success :-)

If they could have taken it sooner, that would have been great. It was chronic appendicitis, which turns into acute but takes its time. Finally, after 11 doctor visits and 2 trips to the ER (and a lot of crying on mom's part, which is not normal), the surgeon decided it had to go. Not a minute too soon!

JT has been making huge progress! He knows 17 letters of the alphabet, and he was singing the song yesterday! He also counts to 4. He's using tons of words. I guess this is our 'explosion'. I show him a letter, and say 'what letter is this?' and he responds correctly! He has said 'more juice', 'yeah', 'uh-uh' (as in no), 'sissy', and many, many more! Yay JTmer!

We celebrated Halloween by heading over to Erin and Danny's house. Their little girl is just a little older than Audrey, and Audrey loves Ainsley. So, Audrey (the princess on the pony) had fun. Surprisingly, JT LOVED his costume. He was a monkey. I made sure to get a hoodie costume since last year the seperate hat did not go over well.

Just trying to get everything back on track now... JT's therapy schedule has been well, nonexistent (but he's making progress, so yay), so now we're going to have to start that up again.

The Hubs's still loving his job and his coworkers. I've been getting more projects and was surprised to find I'm 'google famous' (okay, so maybe I made that term up, but really!). I can google my name and my work stuff comes up - and takes up more than one google page of results ;-)

Well, we're off to hike or something... Time change is messing me up - I'm already hungry for lunch.