__________________

For weeks, maybe even months, I've been thinking about what I would title this blog entry. I had faith that prayers would continue to be answered, and that for reasons all his own, God would heal my little mama. Now that I actually get to write, I am at a loss for words for a title that would encompass the emotions felt. I love using song lyrics for titles, but could not choose any that were worthy. I looked over quotes and Bible verses but again, couldn't find the perfect words. So, this entry is title-less, which says much more than words ever could.

You see, this little lady right here, she got the all clear yesterday from her oncologist. A little over seven months ago, she was diagnosed-out of the BLUE-with stage four cancer.

Our world was shaken, our faith was strengthened, and our friends and family swooped in like nobody's business.

Do you believe that lady in the middle had a golf ball-sized tumor removed from her brain on Monday and was on the dance floor on Saturday?! I mean, really... Those ladies surrounding her have done just that from the moment our world was turned upside-down. They are some of the most remarkable and loving women on the planet and I'm so thankful they are my mom's dearest friends.

I'm so thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped her, for my dad who was her rock, and for every single person who prayed for her and for our family. May she be a living example of God's goodness and his love and a testament to the power of prayer.

My sweet mama defied some really ugly odds and did it all with grace and a smile on her face.

XOXO

love for my sweet mama

One of the song choices at church this morning couldn't have come at a more perfect time; here is the chorus which spoke right to my heart:

Oh No, You Never Let Go
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

This week stands to contain both the highest of highs and lowest of lows thus far in my life. I think I'll hum this tune to myself all day tomorrow as we wait for the amazing doctors to work their magic on my sweet mama.

If you're the praying kind, my family would be most grateful for any you care to offer up.

recap of the end

The end of 2009, that is.... My poor little blog hasn't gotten much attention from me this fall/winter at all, so I figured a little recap of all important/not-so-important events was due. 2009 ended by celebrating at dinner with friends, enjoying some bubbly, and just relaxed hanging out. It was nice and calm (minus a somewhat intense game of electronic CatchPhrase) and included nothing close to bottle service, which is always a plus.

On the work side of things, I got to be a part of one of my very favorite things to happen in my 5.5 years at Blue Haze. Our school was selected by the Marines to be a donation location for Toys for Tots. For several weeks families donated toys and the kids knew nothing except that a "plan" was in place one Thursday afternoon. At about 12:30 an announcement was made for everyone to begin heading out to the playground. At 1:00 (on the dot, just in case you thought the military might not be on time), a helicopter flew towards the school, circled the playground twice, and landed on the backstop. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!! I was so thankful and so excited for our students that they got to be a part of something so special. I had chills as they landed and I'm pretty sure I wore a ridiculous grin the rest of the day.
Here are kids lined against the fence and the helicopter coming into view.

A 4-star general along with three other marines (one of whom is the dad of a Blue Haze kiddo) and the pilot walked up to greet everyone.

They shook EVERY kid's hand!!!

My sweet Character Crew kids who helped load all the bagged toys.

Once work/school ended for the break, things got a bit more busy. I left work Friday afternoon, went with Emily to deliver Angel tree gifts a family from school, and dashed to TCU to get my graduation stuff. Then it was time to head to dinner where "the parents" met for the first time. Success x 10! :) Saturday morning was my hooding ceremony nice and early at TCU...thank you, Mother Nature, for bringing the 40 degree weather in just in time for me to be sporting a very NOT windproof purple graduation robe. The hooding ceremony was really neat and special. And while I won't miss being in class until 10:10 at night and doing homework, I will dearly miss the people and professors I spent 2 1/2 years with. We all grew very close and the thought of not seeing them all every week makes me want to keep going to class just because. Graduation was a bit long...which is expected. We went to a delicious dinner that night to celebrate and then headed to a beautiful wedding reception afterwards.

After the weekend was over, I breathed, vegged a little, and then began my last minute Christmas shopping for almost everyone on my list. I will NOT be doing that next year!! The roads were insane and I'm sure I had way too many tacky thoughts in my head about drivers/people than I should've had so close to Santa visiting.

I got all my shopping done, however, and Bobby and I had our Christmas a few days early. In addition to other things, we both managed to get each other nearly the same gift....think we hang out much together?

And even though he will probably kill me for putting this on here, I couldn't resist. Thanks to some boredom and nasty weather in San Antonio, we opted to stay indoors and visited the museum which happened to have a circus exhibit. Now Bobby...I could have posted the video of you doing Super HulaHoop on the wii....

Welcome, 2010!

celebrate good times

I love fireworks. I wish they were a part of every holiday celebration. Or maybe used to celebrate the end of each month. I would like that. I like them. Alas, I must try to get my fix on one day in July. Oh, but wait, not this year...I managed to see fireworks THREE nights in a row-booya!!

Thursday: minding our business, discussing all kinds of important things, sitting on the roof at 7th Haven, low and behold...up pops the show from the Botanic Gardens. What a great surprise! I then took pictures with each of my fireworks friends.
Mere and I...not sure I was quite ready for that photo, but it captured the fireworks, so I'm happy.

Claire and I....no fireworks that direction behind us...whoops.

Bobby and I...he was also my partner in crime on Friday as we snuck into the end of the Cats baseball game, found empty seats on the 3rd row, watched the last 1/2 of the 9th inning and then...FIREWORKS SHOW! Woohoo!!

For the actual 4th, I ventured to Lake Worth with Mere, Leigh, and crew...but not before a stop at Rosa's, Majestic, and the Dollar General first. What else is there to do in Lake Worth, really? We spent the rest of the afternoon at a lake house where we played a super fun game of baseball...I think all baseball should be played the way we played. I hit the first RBI of the game. Whatever that is. Then a couple of the boys proceeded to call me "Proud Mary" the rest of the night. Guess the Wii baseball playing paid off. I also caught a ball but it didn't count as an out because I wasn't holding my drink in hand when I caught it. See, now you wanna know how to play the game, huh? :) We played with the most precious tiny fluff of a dog and watched fireworks over the water once the sun went down. What a fabulous 4th!!!

Oh, wait, how could I forget the biggest man-made slip-n-slide ever! It was fun and luckily I'd had enough fun that afternoon that I wasn't grossed out by the fact that I was covered in baby oil, shaving cream, and grass. Here are my visible battle wounds, although a lot more of body hurt than just my hip and knees...internal bruising, perhaps...?? (And yes, one of my knees is more swollen than the other.)

Team America!!

wii, wii, wii, all the way home

Let me begin by saying that I hope I still have a mom who loves me after this! She didn't know I was recording her skills and definitely didn't know it would end up on my blog...love you mama!!

I headed to San Antonio Tuesday afternoon in hopes of beating some of the crazy Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving traffic. I think I beat most of it. Claire was already there by the time I arrived. She and I went to North Star Mall on Wednesday...it was my attempt to get some Christmas shopping done early. Well, if I were shopping for myself, that would have worked out perfectly. I got two things for me and one thing for a friend. So, basically I have not begun Christmas shopping and it's about to stress me out. I have big hopes of spending one Saturday or Sunday afternoon in Southlake and knocking it all out....which means I must come up with a list and ideas for gifts for my peeps!! And seeing as how there is an Anthropologie out there, I'm predicting that, again, I will find something for myself that I just can't live without. Thank goodness my career pays me so well.

Oh, Austin on Thursday was great fun with a great big group of great people!

On to the real purpose of this blog...My mom got my dad a wii system for his birthday in March. We all played a little bit at Easter, but apparently my parents play it rather frequently even without any youngins in the house. I was sore by Sunday from bowling...I was trying to go pro but barely missed the mark! I also tried golf because my mom kept talking about how fun it was. And it was! Nevermind that I was pretty good for never having picked up a real club or wii remote before. THEN she says she has really been wanting to try boxing. Uh huh. Seriously. Well, you can see the progression below of her boxing skills.

*I played too (but of course it wasn't captured on film) and knocked out my opponent in the middle of the second round. Booya! I videotaped my dad playing too, but it's on my sister's camera so you'll have to wait for that hilarity.*

Video 1 is my mom's first go-round with her "opponent."

Video 2 is her in the 2nd round, not knowing there was a 3rd round.

Victory lap!

thanksgiving

The Maze and I are headed to SA in a couple of hours-woohoo!! And while there will likely be time for blogging, my parents have pretty much the equivalent to dial-up Internet, so I seriously doubt that will be happening....which is why I'll post a Thanksgiving-related blog a few days early.

I'm so very thankful:
~ for Martha, Brian, and Claire...being home makes it feel like I never really left...I can make 1,000 mistakes and they'll still love me
~ for Emily, Margaret, Suz, Emily, and Meredeth...these girls know me better than most...for better friends you could not ask
~ for the ladies I "live" next door to and across the hall from at work: Deneise, Carrie, Meredeth, Emily, and Christy...they make "work" not feel like it at all...they also have hearts of gold and are some of the most supportive and encouraging people I've known
~ for the 22 babies I spend my weekdays with...they make me laugh and make me cry, they allow me to make mistakes and to apologize for them, and they let me attempt to make each of their days a little brighter
~ that I have an entire week off this week!
~ for my little four-legged furry friend who greets me at my door...she is the most perceptive animal I've known
~ to be able to attend graduate school and to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
~ as corny as this sounds, I'm so thankful that I rarely get sick...if you've ever had to leave substitute plans, you know that you'd rather be feeling like crumb at work than leaving plans for a sub

I hope you and your people have a very, very happy Thanksgiving!!! :)