A detour from Oklahoma

Last week we were blessed to get to go to Oklahoma to meet my new niece, Morgan. She's the seventh grandchild for my parents so she must be lucky! She is a beautiful baby with lots of dark hair who already sleeps like a champ. We got to meet the new princess and also spend quality time with the big brother and big sister, Hendrix and Gentry. We managed to play outside with all four kids (mostly) getting along, take Hendrix to soccer practice, and take the kids to the mall so Hendrix and Jake could make a build-a-bear.

Morgan Jane--so beautiful!

The four big cousins

Build-a-bear

Firebear and Thunderbear had to be buckled in on the way home from the mall :)

We got there on Monday and were supposed to stay a week, but Wednesday evening Ty called to tell me he was being admitted to the hospital so the kids and I rushed back on Thursday to be with him. He had a place on his jawline (possibly a cut from shaving) that became infected with MRSA staph. After 24 hours of antibiotics and no improvement, they did surgery on Friday to remove the abscess that had formed. A plastic surgeon did the operation since it was on his face. He was able to remove about 90% of the infection but some had already spread to the nearby tissue. He was very close to having it enter the muscle which is scary due to his heart condition. We had to fight with the nursing staff to get them to contact his cardiologist, but they eventually did. I've learned so many times in the past few years how important and vital it is to be your own (or family's) advocate in the medical community. The nurse had never heard of an ASD (Ty's heart defect) and wasn't worried about it. The next day when I finally spoke to the cardiologist's office, it was so reassuring to talk to someone who knew our "lingo." Ty still has a low-grade fever and is not feeling well, but he got to come home from the hospital on Saturday. The antibiotic will hopefully work to wipe out the rest of the infection. We're praying that this will happen sooner rather than later! We had great friends who continually called to help and take Jake and Grace for us Friday and Saturday. Jonesa kept the kids Thursday night,and Larry and Donna came in Sunday and left today and were a big help as well. We just have to get Ty back to feeling like himself! The final lab results came back showing which antibiotic will work the best. It just needs to work now!

Making cupcakes with Nonnie

Waking up from a nap with Pops

Leaps and Bounds

Jake had his one year speech evaluation this week and we are so pleased with the results! For receptive language he tested at 3 years, 6 months (right on target) and for expressive language he tested at 3 years, 1 month which gives him an average of 3 years, 3 months which is just 3 months below average. He has come so far and is doing so well! I'm so thankful for his therapist, Brittnie. Her personality works so well with Jake--she is such a sweet, tender-hearted, patient person who Jake simply adores. I believe God placed us with the exact perfect therapist for Jake. She's going to write new goals for Jake and work on getting him up to speed even more.

He loves learning and this summer has learned all of his letters and can tell you what sound each letter makes (thanks Leap Frog!). He starts pre-school in a week and a half, and I think he'll do really well. Hopefully, his speech will continue to improve as he interacts with his class as well.

His heart check-up is not until the end of September. We'll find out then how he's doing and if he'll have surgery this fall. He's given up his nap (to my dismay) so that may mean the membrane isn't growing. He also has started sweating more and more so that may mean it is growing…so hard to tell. I took him to Pump it Up last week (a big indoor playground with inflatables) and he had so much fun, but after 30 minutes he was drenched in sweat so we had to call it a day. That hurt my heart a bit to see that and reminded me about his heart. Somedays it's easy to forget, and then I get a reminder every once in awhile and hug him a little tighter.

"Tutu" easy!

When Grace was born a friend of mine gave her an adorable tutu! It was one of my absolute favorite gifts I received for her. My brother and his wife are expecting a new baby girl any day so I wanted to make the new baby and big sister Gentry matching tutus. I heard they were easy to make and indeed they are!

I went to Michael's and bought several rolls of tulle. I found it in the wedding aisle, and they had several colors to choose from. I bought a roll of elastic as well, and I had my supplies. I first cut the elastic the size I wanted it and sewed the ends together. I then experimented to find out the best way to cut the tulle evenly. Getting the strips even is the most difficult part since tulle is so stretchable. I learned I could just cut a strip about 12 inches and tie it to the elastic. I alternated colors so next I would choose my next color and cut it about 12 inches as well and tie it next to the first strip. I then trimmed the pieces to make them even. Each time I tied a new strip on, I just measured it next to the previous one, and it kept the tutu even and straight! It tried the tutu on Grace when I was finished, and it was a great fit!

For the baby, I just made the strips about 8 inches instead of 12 and of course made the elastic waistband smaller than the one I made for Gentry (who's 20 months). I can't wait to meet my new baby niece next week and try the tutu on her!

Since this was so easy, I've already bought more colors and want to make Grace and Gentry red tutus next for Oklahoma football season! I want to have a tutu party soon and have friends over to all make tutus for their little girls. After we make the tutus, we could then have a tea party where all the little princesses can wear them.

"Tutu" for now! :)

Tour of Friends

A week ago my college roommate, Sallie, came down to visit us from Connecticut. She and I were roommates three years at Harding and best friends. She and I truly made the most of our college experience and loved every second of it! We were blessed with incredible Christian friends and an experience that I think could rival the best of them. We were queens for the Knight's Social Club together and threw a mean end of the year party at Heber each May with a cookout, swimming, and a devotional to end each school year with around 150 friends. We were quite social during our college time, but we also grew spiritually as well as Harding was definitely a place where my faith was cemented and grew real. For Sallie's graduation present, I wrote her a book about our college career, The Sallie and Amy Story. It's about 100 pages long…one of these days I'm going to get it bound for real.

Anyway, Sal nows lives in Connecticut and has been teaching in New York since college. She recently got her Master's from Columbia in teaching visually impaired students and works at a public school in the Bronx. We obviously don't see each other very often so last week was a treasured time. Our idea was to take a little road trip and visit other friends that live nearby to have a little reunion. It also gave us lots of driving time to catch up, and her a chance to get to know Jake and Grace.

It was a breath of fresh air to see several old friends. It was so fun to see everyone's kids and let all of our kids meet. We have some friends that our missionaries, and three of our friends just got back from or are going on mission trips soon. It was so wonderful to see how God is working and how He took our little Harding group and literally sent them out all over the world. We're having a reunion at Harding this year for homecoming, and I can't wait!

Here our some highlights from our "tour of friends:"

Chris and Jill Shelby's kids, Jeremy and Dijana's kids, and Jake and Grace:

The Shelby's were in Houston that week so we had them over for breakfast along with Misty Mathews and her four kids. It was so great to catch up with the Shelby's! Chris and Jill are missionaries in Rwanda and Jeremy and Dijana live in Searcy where Jeremy is the youth minister for Downtown church. We just picked up where we left off 5-7 years ago and had a wonderful morning together!

Sal wanted good Tex-Mex so we took her to Chuy's…yum!

One of my favorites of Grace:

We went to Dallas for a few days and stayed at Randi Roper Perkins' parents' house with Randi and her three kids and a short cameo appearance from Shannon! Her parents were out of town and they graciously let us use their house which has an incredible pool! We spent a lot of time outside, needless to say. We stayed up late after the kids went to bed talking by the pool and praying together…Yea for good girl time!

Randi's three (Brady, Braxton, and Bryce) with Jake and Grace

Randi, Sal, and me

Jake was incognito most of the trip…this came out of kid's meal at Wendy's…best kid's meal prize EVER!

We got to go see Tim and Amanda Allen and their two, Reagan and Bennett. Bennett is 4 months old and had heart surgery a few weeks ago. He did wonderfully! He joined Jake in the "cool scar" club! He was born with Tetrology of Fallot, but this surgery was so successful, the doctors don't anticipate him having anymore. In this picture, Jake was trying to lift up his shirt to show off his scar. Their little Reagan is so adorable too!

And then we got to see Adam and Rebekah Mathews and meet their sweet Lily. We met them in Shreveport and walked around the boardwalk and had lunch. Adam is spearheading the reunion in November so we brainstormed about that. Lily and Grace are close in age so we told them they'll be friends at Harding one day!

Sal, Adam, and Rebekah

We had a wonderful week full of old friends, lots of laughs, many tears from my two from all of the riding in the car, and lots of good food! Sal is the baker extraordinaire and made us cupcakes, brownies, and an amazing chocolate cake. That's one good thing about us living thousands of miles apart…I would weigh 800 pounds if we lived in the same city :) Ty was really great to share us for the week, too. He had to stay home and work, but hung out with Sallie a few nights as well.

Here's to GREAT FRIENDS!