Happy Birthday, Danielle!

Danielle's birthday was on Sunday, March 1st! She started off her birthday weekend by having her Grandma Becky come from Utah to help celebrate her special day with us! This was the first birthday that Grandma has spent with Danielle and that made it extra special for her! On Saturday, Danielle's worlds collided as she had invited almost all her friends to her birthday party! I had to tell her twice to stop inviting people because we couldn't invite them ALL! Sorry to those who didn't get an invite. We just couldn't have everyone. We had the party at Allen Bowl where the kids and Brent too, went bowling! They had so much fun! She had a bowling cake and had lots of fun with her many, many friends! Thank you Grandma Becky for being the Photographer and her loaning us her camera because we had lost ours...temporarily! On Sunday, we had Danielle's family birthday dinner. In addition to Grandma and at Danielle's request, we had the Halls over as well since they are practically family to us too! When I first asked her what she wanted for her dinner, she said she wanted cheese sandwiches, then it was spaghetti (which would have been the 3rd time that week!) She finally decided (and a little coaxing from me) on my Lemon Chicken. It was a great day! Her favorite gifts this year were her 3 webkinz...she is obsessed with them! Thanks Rene' and Teri! I can't believe my baby is 5 years old!

My Dental Experience!

I had some dental work done today! When I heard it was going to take 3 hours...I knew I wanted the nitrogen! So, I'm laying in the chair and they put the mask on me and start it up. I could feel it go from my head to my fingers and all the way to my toes. I was floating and not having a care in the world! I imagined this is what it feels like when our spirits leave our bodies! Although, I was very aware of what was going on around me (voices, music, the drill). I also had the thought that a full body massage while breathing in nitrogen would be "The Ultimate Spa Experience". If there is such a thing, let me know, I'd love to try it out! I love the dentist!

I'm a "freak" patient...I guess!

I went to see Doctor #5 today regarding my chest pain. This time a Thoracic Surgeon. He asked me a series of questions, asked me to point to where I was hurting and then told me that he wasn't the Doctor I needed to see. He too wants to "pass me off" to someone else. This time a Rheumatologist. He said they are the ones who handle "freaky inflammation". He also said this kind of Doctor could explain why I had Acute Pancreatitis and also the Bell's Palsy. All of which are "unexplainable" by the Doctors I've seen here in Texas. On a good note: he did give me a different medication that he claims is a "miracle drug" and it should take care of my problem in one to two weeks. If it doesn't then I should go see Doctor #6. I'm crossing my fingers!

Unsupervised again!

My sweet Danielle got in big trouble yesterday! She cut her own hair! Her bangs use to be as long as the rest.

This is what happens when I spend too much time on Facebook.

Lesson learned here: spend more time with my kids!

"Lessons Learned"

Everyone says "Attitude is Everything." I completely agree with this statement. I've been thinking about the trials our family has had to face this past year and as serious as it has all been, I know everything is going to be alright in the end and that there is nothing I can do to change anything. We've all heard the statement that the Lord doesn't give us things we cannot handle. I know that I can handle so many more things that I ever thought possible and I've learned alot of lessons as results of these trials! The words to "lessons learned" by Carrie Underwood mean so much more to me now! Brent came in this morning to tell me that the chicken I had put in the refrigerator had leaked out of the bag and dripped all over the refrigerator contaminating everthing! I found myself laughing over it. Of course, this is something minor but a bad attitude could have made the clean-up very unpleasant. I was actually happy this happened because it made me clean out the refrigerator and now it's CLEAN! Lesson I learned was not to put a bag of chicken in the refrigerator without putting it in a bowl first!

The Black Cloud!

There is literally a "Black cloud" following Brent these days. First, there was his accident on Sunday (read last post) and yesterday, he was caught in a Tornado up in Oklahoma City! He's fine but said he has never been in such a terrible storm before in his life! He says he even thought he saw a funnel cloud. Scary! He was with one of the partners from work and they were driving home in the storm. (they thought they could beat it!) Well...the hail was so big and coming down so hard that it cracked the windshield in two places. The storm actually followed the path they were driving and he got home just as this storm hit Allen. Luckily the strength of the storm had died down a bit when it got to us so the rest of the night we were safe! They say bad things come in 3's. Is that 3 in a week? 3 in a month? or 3 just whenever? Over the past year we have had like 5! What is up?

"Tender Mercies"

We thought we were at the end of this whole "moving" thing with the "Drive Mom's Car To Utah" task. Brent left Friday afternoon for Salt Lake. I really wanted to go with him so he didn't have to do the 3-day drive alone and so we could have some "alone time". But, there was no room for me in the car and now I'm very grateful I didn't go with him! This morning I tried to call Brent but only got his voicemail. I was concerned so I called his sister in Utah to see if she had heard from him. She had not. At about 12:30 pm he calls me. He had been in a car accident! He was near Richfield, Utah and it had been snowing! The car lost traction and it fish-tailed so he was facing backwards on the freeway and proceeded to flip over upside down! The sunroof shaddered, the windshield spiderwebbed and the car was filled with dirt and sagebrush. (By the way, the airbags didn't go off!) He said if he turned his head, his cheek touched a bush coming up through the sunroof. Luckily, there was a woman driving behind him that saw the whole thing. She pulled over, called 911 and within 5 minutes the paramedics and police showed up. Amazingly, Brent only suffered a few scratches! I'm sure he will feel the soreness tomorrow though. Not possitively sure the car is totalled yet, but Brent says the pictures look pretty bad! The reason I say I was glad I didn't go was that the passenger side of the car was damaged pretty badly and that is the side that got the most impact when it crashed. Heavenly Father was watching over us this weekend! He was protecting us from something tragic! I can only imagine what could have happened and I'm very grateful it didn't turn out that way! I will be so happy when Brent is back home, where he should be, and that I can see for myself that he is really OK. Brent is disappointed that he will never get to hear the last 30 minutes of his audiobook, one that he had spent the last 10 hours of his drive listening to. Oh, his Blackberry needs replacing too! He did mention maybe getting an i-phone?!