life-- as normal as it can be

I have been home for a few weeks now and things are slowly returning to normal. Soccer games, Cub Scouts, homework for me and Broderick, field trips, doctors appointments, cleaning, grocery shopping, and lots and lots and LOTS of laundry...yes life has officially returned to normal!

My dad is making great gains and is getting stronger every day. He is starting to make sense of some of the things that happened to him while he was in the hospital and I am proud to say that he has remained sober since being out. No drinking and no smoking! I hate that it took a heart attack and then intense alcohol withdrawal, but I guess that is just what God has to do sometimes.

John's dad is doing well and awaiting surgery on his heart. He will have valve replacement surgery in the next few months as well as a bypass (or two or three) and pacemaker wiring put in. We will probably be back in Indiana for his surgery-hopefully it is after the middle of June (Broderick's last day of school is the 17th and John's is the 18th). John's mom's lumpectomy was last week and she found out this week that they didn't get all the cancer. She is now supposed to have a mastectomy. Right now it is still unsure whether or not she will have to have chemo and radiation, but she meets with an oncologist in the next few weeks and we should have more answers. Please keep both of them in your prayers during this very difficult chapter in their life. God never said it would be easy, but He did let us know He would never leave our sides. Hold fast to your faith!!!!

Adalynn had an appointment with an audiologist at the hospital early last week. She has conductive hearing loss in one of her ears. . She did fantastic with the testing and did not have to have the BAER test. They were able to use speech recognition tests as well as the "look at the monkey" test (not the official name of the test, but I think you know what I mean). We also found out that both of her tubes are either out or just not working. We go back to her regular ENT tomorrow for some more answers and to see where we go from here.

Classes are going well for me and I am officially over a quarter of the way finished with my master's. It was tough trying to keep up with my work while I was in Indiana and at the hospital with my dad, but thanks to WiFi at the hospital and my mom's laptop, I did what I could. I finally caught up over the weekend and I am back on track.

We are excited that our best friends Heather and Jesse are coming to visit next week. I am even more excited that the guys got together and got Heather and me gift certificates to the spa. YEA!!!! I think I deserve a little bit of relaxation. Jesse just got back from Camp Liberty in Iraq after spending the last year as a fire fighter over there. I know he is going to be shocked at how big the kids have gotten in the past year, but I also know that I have two little boys that have been praying every night for Jesse's safe return and who are going to be SUPER excited to see him (and Heather too).

We are finishing up the school year and trying to decide if we are going to renew our lease and live in this house another year or try to find somewhere cheaper. Housing prices here are so ridiculously crazy compared to what we were used to in Indiana and in Georgia. Please keep us in your prayers as we make decisions about where we are going to live. We most likely will be staying in the same area so Broderick can have another year at the same school. He has already been in 3 different school systems....we really don't want to go for a fourth. Camden starts kindergarten in the fall and is all set on going to the kindergarten center, so we really don't want to make a lot of changes.

And here are some photos taken over the past month or so....



john is more than enjoying our view of storms coming in and dreaming about really storm chasing again...(yes, he took this photo from our deck) Pretty cool, eh?


The kids have enjoyed playing in our yard and the warmer weather....




Broderick with his teacher, Ms. Gossai. She's the best and has come to several of the boys' soccer games.



The kids with Jaden and Bailey. Our friends, the Tadda's (from GA) came to visit the week before I left for Indiana. Jaden is just a little younger than Broderick and Bailey is finishing 3rd grade. We had so much fun with them!



Broderick graduated from Tiger Scouts last Friday night and is now a Wolf. He really enjoyed Cub Scouts this year. Doesn't he look so grown up in his uniform? He had a pretty cool graduation ceremony with Indian face painting, songs, and a huge campfire!!



Camden loved finding wiggly worms at Camp Serranova, where Broderick's Cub Scout graduation was. It was such a beautiful evening!




Daddy with Adalynn and Camden. I am so greatly blessed!!!!!