Life goes on...

So, last weekend was paint the porch weekend, and I was able to complete that. Yeah! Peri had a cheer-leading competition in Greenwood and they did great, except, according to the judges, missed having a back spot for one of their aerials, which resulted in a 20 point deduction. Having a back spot when doing any of the stunts is rather important, but according to the coach, that moved the girls from finishing 2nd to 7th(last). Ouch. But, they did great with all the team issues they had up to that point. They had 2 girls out with injuries, one which had been injured the night before, so they persevered and performed with changes that day. We are very proud of our little cheerleader. Way to go Peri. After they performed, 2 of the girls on the squad, Peri being one of them, had to be helped off. They had a trainer there and he iced their injuries, Peri's being her knee and the other girls ankle. Both were pre-existing conditions.. So, Peri's good friend Ricki's dad is a doctor and he asked us if we would like him to take a look at it. We agreed and he said it didn't seem to be serious, but she might have a slight tear and thought we should have it checked out by an ortho. So, this week, Peri went to an ortho and he had her get some x-rays, because they are cheaper than MRI and he would check them out. Those resulted in not much, and he said an MRI would detect tears and such that an x-ray couldn't. We have that scheduled for Friday morning, so we wont know anything till then.
Ella had her first meet against a Christian School and they had 4 girls. We won. Ella did fine in the events she swam. Somehow, my times didnt get saved on my Blackberry, but according to Ella, her times were better than her times for the 1st meet last year. Anyway, that is our life for this month and I hope all are doing fine.

Libby Update:
Libby does have an infection in her port. She's in a lot of pain and is on a Morphine drip as well as a pump Emma can push if she needs additional pain medicine. Libby did have to get blood on Sunday and Platelets on Monday due to her counts being down. She has blisters in her throat and unable to eat or drink so she's on a Nutrients IV as well. All of this they say is typical w/ a Bone Marrow Transplant and especially w/ the infection. That unfortunately doesn't make it any easier. Emma and Mike are doing well due to all the prayers being lifted up for them. Mike is playing "Mr. Mom" and is doing a terrific job at it! He took Mary to the Doctor for a checkup this morning and she is growing quickly. She was 6 lbs. 12 oz at birth and is now 8 lbs. 4 oz. It is so hard for Emma as she is only able to see Mary, Sean and Erica on the weekends, but she is so comforted at the way Mike is handling things.
Our entire family can't thank you enough for your prayers and concerns. I know Mike and Emma have been so overwhelmed w/ your love. This entire community has been awesome in supporting my sister and her family and I am so grateful for you all.

Our garage is takin a beatin', well maybe it is giving us a beatin'

OK. So Sarah goes out into the garage this morning to go to school at 6:55 am, and what do I hear... "The garage door won't open!". My little sleepy mind couldn't quite translate that simple statement, so I say, "Huh?.. what do you mean?" "I SAID THE GARAGE DOOR WON'T GO UP!!!" du du du duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.. Super Tom to the rescue. I go out and sure enough, the door will not go up. I'll just unlatch the automatic door opener and raise the door, as we have to do if the power is out. Click.. OK, unlatched. Grab on the handle of the door and push the door up... It doesn't even budge. OK. That was just a test attempt to raise the door.. Use your legs, man! UUUUnnnndtrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggg... What the.... I can't budge the door.. At this point, with Peri and Sarah standing there, I feel a little bit embarrassed. Am I too old to even lift the door.. I get a ladder and check the top of the door, to make sure it isn't somehow jammed. Nope.. I look over and what do my eyes see... The tension spring that at this time, I wasn't sure exactly what it's function was, was broke in half. OK, so that is apparently the problem, but Sarah and the kids need to get to school. So they take Ella's car to school (If Ella is driving, she normally leaves a bit after Sarah and Peri, but today, Ella was pretty much ready to leave so it all worked out) So, I call the garage door place hoping that those springs might have like a 10 year warranty, but no such luck, but they were able to dispatch a repairman this morning and he arrived around 9:45. 45 minutes later, he was gone and the door works again. He proceeded to tell me that a door our size is very heavy and even he and I could not raise it. OK, so I am feeling my testosterone slowly eeking back into my system. That door ought to know better than to kick sand in my face.. Haha.. Anyway, that is our little adventure for today and I hope all is well with everyone.
Love and regards...

OK, so I am still a slacker

Been a little while, so here goes nuttin'. Peri and Ella both got straight A's for the first trimester. Way to go, girls. Peri is busy with dance, cheerleading, cross-country. She hasn't run in a meet since her knee injury in the first meet that she ran. She is planning on running next week in an invitational. We are not expecting her to burn the course up due to the fact that she has only practiced on a very limited time schedule. Ella is doing conditioning for swimming which starts the end of this month. She is taking the SAT this Saturday, so good luck to her. Peri has just signed up for the Washington DC trip with her school in May. Sarah has been busy with work, home, aerobics and hauling Peri to all her activities. I assist when I can. I have been nursing a shoulder issue and it appears I might have rotator cuff tendinitis. It is just kind of painful, but I can still play ball and do stuff, except my shoulder has some weakness. I really noticed it affecting my jump shot, and that just isn't going to work. So, I started some physical therapy last week to strengthen and loosen the tendons. It seems to be going well. It may take a little time, but I will get it there. Last weekend I had my 30th year reunion. I had a good time and Sarah, well, at least she knew a few people and there was a live band that she seemed to enjoy. Anyway, that is about the extent of our life in the ville for the moment and I hope all are doing well and love ya'll.

Libby Update:
Libby finished her last round of chemo after they did not find any cancer from the tests that she had. The reason she still needs it is because it is protocol for this type of cancer. Sometimes with neuroblastoma there can be microscopic cells that hide. The chemo was quite a bit stronger than the regular rounds and she got rather sick. She came home Sept 24 and has limitations on where she can go because her immune system is low. Her mother is due with child this month. After the baby is born, Libby will have one more round of chemo that will be stronger than the last round. Just keep her and the family in your prayers.

Weekend fun

It was fun seeing everyone this weekend and as always the food was extreme... Thanks Gary and all else who made all that food. It was all wonderful. I just wanted to also post a few pics from the weekend and also a picture of our new driveway that Sarah continues to fret about. I hope everyone had a glorious weekend and good luck to Josh and Abrah as they begin their move. Love to all.

Been awhile

Sorry for the long delay. It has been awhile. We have been busy the last month or so with many activities, some good and some bad. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. Well, the girls are back in school. Peri is running cross-country, dancing, doing gymnastics, and cheer leading. Ella is taking a ballroom dancing class with one of her cousins, she has gotten a vehicle to drive, and I believe she is going to do some conditioning soon for swimming. She decided to not participate in fall swim club to work on her studies. That is the good stuff. The bad stuff is we had a tree fall on our garage, doing a little bit of damage, but we are about to have that issue resolved. A friend of ours who does construction did the roof repairs and such, and we are waiting on his gutter guy to come and put up some new guttering. This happened numerous weeks ago. That is about all I know at the moment, and my ankle, which was sprained about 6 weeks ago, is healing and I hope to be back on the court soon, with ankle brace on. Keep Sarah in your prayers because the teacher who was next door to her, and was 58, passed away on Saturday while mowing her yard. The calling is today and then she is being transported out to Missouri, I believe, where most of her family resides. It was a bit of a shock.

Libby Update: Libby finished her last round of chemo a 2 weeks ago. She was back in the hospital the next week after running a fever and she received some blood to get her counts up. She is in for tests this week and has her last test is today. So far, all the tests have come back positive, from my understanding.

Thanks and hope everyone is doing fine.

There's a new driver in town....

Congratulations to Ella who passed her written test and is now an official licensed driver. Yeah. OK, so she still needs a car(which she reminds me about every minute), but we are looking. I have also included a picture of my friend at work Le'gretta's baby, Keira, whom I visited this week. She was born 6 weeks early, but she is doing fine, as is her mother. She is 1 1/2 weeks old in these pictures. Also included is a couple of pictures of Ella, who got bonked in the face yesterday at swim practice while they were playing a game. It broke her goggles, but she is fine. Ella swam this weekend in Seymour at an outdoor meet and she did fine. It was rather brisk out there for the swimmers, but not bad from a spectator point of view. It did not rain either. While we were at the swim meet with Ella, Peri had a cheerleader lockdown at the middle school with the other middle school cheerleaders. She was there from Friday night through Sunday morning when her grandparents picked her up. I have also included a couple of pictures from Peri's camp. I hope everyone is doing fine and have a good one!

4th pics and congrats to Ella

Ella passed her driving test today, so now all she has to do is take the written part. Way to go Ella. She and her mother were nervous. I knew she could do it. I sprained my ankle last night playing basketball coming down on someones foot. Needless to say, I took the day off and "RICE" it. Also included a picture from being "TP"ed by some of Ella's swim friends which happened in the wee hours of the 3rd.