Grant's hanging out with Aileen and Lauren is taking a nap. Sean is in Tucson for business. Ahhhhhh. I am going to do this before I get to work on my assignment do this week for school. Yes school. I've got one class down and 11 to go until I receive my MBA. Then what? Ah, that's the question. Let me know your ideas!

So while I'm sitting here thinking, chewing on some Bit-O-Honeys, let me ask you a question. What is your favorite candy? I mean anything - jelly beans, twizzlers, snickers, homemade toffee (yum), starburst, etc. What do you just love to eat when you have a candy craving? I have a few faves. Bit-O-Honey is definitely one of them - although I don't have them often. My mom makes the best toffee, which we have at Christmas. I love Twizzlers though. They really do make this mouth happy. They are low-fat, easy to eat, etc. How about you?

so sue me

Yeah, I haven't blogged in awhile. I've been avoiding some things I guess. Mainly, I guess all of the politics and the election. Oh, we're doing good here, I've just come to some realizations. I won't share them all, but the main one is that God's in control. Am I just realizing that? No, but I've been reminded of that. Also, these are exciting times we live in! The first African-American (well, half anyway....) will be President in a couple of months - I'm proud that Americans have gotten over themselves and race isn't an issue. I'm sad that some seem to think if you didn't vote for him, then you're a racist. That is a weird presumption to make. Still trying to understand that one anyway. Maybe if you didn't vote for him then you simply don't agree with his agenda? Seems like a simpler presumption to make....

I think God put him in charge for a specific purpose. Without sounding like I'm a conspiracy theorist, I believe our world's getting ready to become "one." As exciting as that sounds, it signals we're closer to the "end" than ever before. Since he's being touted as the world's president (that in itself shows you something), the world may be coming together for peace, one currency, etc. - we're ushering in a new era here folks. And it's exciting! We need to be praying. We need to be telling others about Christ. We need to be praying, praying, praying - can't stress that one enough.

Ryan's Skin Tags

Dr. Sean did a little surgery on Ryan while he was here. He cut off 2 of them from Ryan, his 4th and 5th skin tag removals. Pesky skin tags anyone? For a small fee, Sean will remove them for you. Cauterizing is available when needed. Don't act like you don't have any - are you over 25? I'm guessing most of my readers are - except my niece and nephews who read this.... And if you're over 25, your body starts doing some crazy things my friend. Crazy things.

missing the fam

So I don't like living far away from my family. It stinks. I was reminded of it more when my brother, wife and daughter came to visit. It was so great to have them here and just hang out together. We didn't have to do anything special but just spend time together and talk. I love my little bro and he has a great wife and baby girl. I miss them, and my older brother's family too. They all get to live by each other up in Missouri, but I am stuck down here in Arizona. Don't get my wrong, I love Arizona. I love Sean's sister Aileen - probably couldn't survive without her. Her parents are great too, hanging out with the kids on the weekend and whenever I need help. We are never lacking for someone to watch and love the kids. I don't think we've ever had to pay for babysitting yet, and they are being loved by their family at the same time. It would be very difficult for me to rip them away from them. At the same time though, my heart yearns to be with my family and I miss them. It's so far to drive and getting so expensive to fly, so trips are not frequent (how many times can I say "so" in a sentence?). I just wish we could all live by one another like we want. But how can we do that when we all have lives where we are - lives that are good and hard to interrupt? I'm just being selfish and want everything all at once. I know we will all be together in Heaven, but that's a ways away right? At least we think so..... :) For now I'll have to settle on the once a year trip to Missouri and hope they'll come this way sometimes too.

Cadence

It's easy to live life and be happy everything is great. Love your kids, your husband, be happy you have a job, watch a football game, etc. When things go upside down, it makes you prioritize and appreciate some things better. It's not that I didn't appreciate my niece Cadence before, but now I just want to hug her and kiss her and really try to bond with her.

On Saturday night, we received an upsetting phone call that Cadence was taking by ambulance to the children's hospital in KC. Her platelets were low, very low. They gave her more and they went up, but would drop again quickly after that. At one point, they were at 2000! They are supposed to be around 150,000. Crazy. No one knew what was happening. The doctors had a few ideas - ITP or do some tests for leukemia. Yikes, that's a scary word. In the end, they gave Cadence a treatment of immuno-globins or something like that and her body responded well and she is now building her own platelets. She was at 115,000 for her last test and is right now getting ready to go home after spending 2 1/2 days in the hospital. Her treatment should last 3 weeks and she'll be tested again. They won't now for about 6 months if this is something that will be recurring or just a one-time deal. Doctors don't know why ITP happens.

It was/is a scary time, but makes you realize how precious our children are, and other people for that matter. I didn't want Ryan and Tiffany to have to go through that. I wanted to do it for them if I could. That must be something very hard for parents to go through, especially for a child only 4 months old. We are so happy our precious Cadence is feeling better and her platelets are near normal levels. We are still praying for her, and ask you to as well.

So here we are, it's Friday and just finishing up the week. I'm in the middle of making my famous (to us anyway) chili since tomorrow it's supposed to be 80. That's cold, folks. Downright chilly.

I'm in the middle of "week 4" of the MBA and it's going well so far. I think I've got a decent handle on how things work. It's a lot different than on campus, that's for sure.

My husband was promoted to Sales Manager at work, so that's the big news here. If we had any thoughts of moving out of Phoenix before, those are gone. It's long overdue and we're really proud of him. He'll be awesome.

We're excited about fall around here. Grant's still talking about pumpkin day - which is October 23, by the way, when Ryan, Tiffany, and lil Cadence are around and hopefully the parents too. I'll post some pics.

Grant's being doing a bunch of stuff in preschool with pumpkins and having a lot of fun. His teacher has such great ideas! He's got the week off next week for fall break, so we'll have to come up with some fun things to do here as well - which will include cleaning the house for our guest's arrival. Grant actually enjoys cleaning so I take advantage of it while it lasts.

We're headed to Vegas next weekend for Sean's award trip. I can usually handle Vegas for a day before all of the gaudiness gets to me, but there are some fun things planned and I'm excited to get away for a couple days without the kids. Apparently Aramark rented out Studio 54 for an evening, so that should be fun. Now to find some "club" clothes....

This picture is of Grant and Lauren and their new cousin baby Jace (actually my cousin's son).

Aileen, Grant and Lauren at Makutu's Island - an indoor play place, super fun.

She's a growin!

Yeah! We had Lauren's 18-month check-up today and she's growing! She shot up in heighth to 32 inches - over the 50th percentile! For her weight she gained a couple of pounds and is finally in the 20-pound club at 20 lbs. 4 oz. That is the 5th percentile. She was struggling to stay in the 3rd before, so the doctor was very happy. And we were informed we can turn her around in the carseat now. Um, okay. Cough.