Today was a very difficult day for me. Trixie is not going to help me with meals on wheels anymore so I decided to retire after 10 plus years. It is something I have enjoyed very much for the most part, but am ready to do something else. The recipients were very understanding but saddened that we were not coming back. I tried to call the main office, but ended up leaving a voice mail. I'm sure she will call me tomorrow. Just keep me in your prayers that God will lead me to something else to be of service to him. Hope all of you have a great day. LvMaMaPat

Hello

Hello,
It is Sunday morning and I am getting ready to leave for church. Just thought I would send a message. It is a foggy, dreary day here. Hopefully it will get better. Greg and I went over to mom and dad's house yesterday. He is not in much pain now so he feels good. I am glad to hear that. It sure has been difficult trying to get his pain under control. Pat and Gill took soup over yesterday evening and mom said that he enjoyed their visit. It is so wonderful to have a great family that takes care of each other. Dad also had his second day of chemo on Friday and suffered a little nausea, but I don't think it was too bad. I heard from Alana and she and her boyfriend's family is at Lake Lure, NC. She wanted to know if I was close enough to come and see her. I told her about her papa and thought she needed to go see him. She does not have a car because they came in an RV, so I am going to go get her on Wednesday and take her down. Dad has another treatment on Monday and on Tuesday we go back to see the oncologist and get some blood work done so I thought Wednesday would be a much better day! Please pray for mom and dad. Pray for dad's healing and pray for mom as she takes care of him. I will try to get a picture of our new baby up soon.

Love to all,
Leslie

Merry Christmas

This is my first post. Yeah! Thanks to Linda. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone,
We went to Searcy for Corey's graduation. It was wonderful. What an accomplishment. They had 446 graduating, which was the largest Dec. class ever. He is so excited to be finished and we are very excited for him. Jennifer looks great. She and little baby Fipps are growing nicely. It was very special to get to spend time with them. We had some great meals and walked through the beautiful lights of the college campus. There were thousands of them. It was like walking through a winter wonder land. Then to top things off, Corey drove us back as far as Memphis to catch his plane to Calif. All in all it was a great trip.
We enjoyed Christmas lunch with Linda and Jay today. This year was very different. We are ready for that great grand baby to liven things up a bit. Well Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Love MaMaPat

Merry Christmas!

I have to tell you that this year Christmas has just not been the same. Our time from Thanksgiving until now has been filled with speculation, concern, doctor's appointments, treatments, prayer, sitting together as a family pondering the best course of action, and quiet reflection. The outside world with all the hussle and bustle has had little or no effect on us. Oh we were aware that Christmas was coming, even wore my Christmas sweaters and socks a few times and dad wore his ties, but all the other was foggy.
With all this, I am thankful for what we have. I am thankful for the most wonderful man in the world who has loved me through thick and thin...great times and hard times...sickness and health...times we had no money and times we had plenty...you get the point.
I am thankful for my mother who has always been there for me. Praying for my family, my inlaws, and my friends. Taking walks or going to lunch to help me gain prospective. I am thankful she is my sister in Christ.
I am thankful for my children...they are a reminder that life will go on. They give support and love in difficult time and laughter in times of joy. They have grown into wonderful adults and married christian mates. They are carrying on family traditions and caring for others.
I am thankful for friends who I can share funny stories, deepest fears and everything in between.
I am thankful for the material blessings, our home, cars, clothes, and stuff. All stuff I can live without, but really enjoy.
I am thankful for the trials...they bring us close, remind us of what is important, cause us to count the cost of everything we do, help us to reevaluate our goals, improve our prayer life, help us spend time with the people we love, and become dependent on God for our strength.
I love each one of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Corey's graduation

Well, finally Corey is done with his Master's of Science in Education! wooooohoooo! the ceremony was today and it was the largest December graduation in the history of the school. so we ended up having to sit in what is called the upper heavens. we just didn't realize there would be so many people there! Anyways, it was neat to be there and I'm glad he walked. Afterward, we went to Bill and Debbie Harrison's house for lunch. They are our adoptive parents and are very proud of Corey as I know all you guys are too. We will miss them very much, when Corey finds a job and we leave AR. Thanks to everyone for their support and we love you very much!!

Update on Papa

Papa had his biopsy today. The procedure went ok, but he is in a great deal of pain. We had to cancel the appointment on 12/23 and reschedule for 12/29 since the results of the biopsy will take about a week to get the results. I am praying that the doctors will be able to diagnose
what is wrong and then begin some kind of treatment that will help him. It hurts me so much to see him in such pain. If the pain could be alleviated, I know that he would be much better.

Accupunture

Went for my third session yesterday. Cassandra decided I needed some stress work...imagine, me stressed..so I rolled over for her to work with my back. I am thinking, she will place a few needles and I will drift off to sleep and get some much needed rest. (I have been having some hip pain and when I get tense, I have been having shoulder pain.) So...here we go...the first needle goes into my buttocks, not so bad, then she places the second one...it must have been 5 inches long...I swear it hit my sciatica...I thinking... this is not cool or relaxing. She proceeded to place 20 more needles...mostly painlessly until she got to my shoulder...she said (in her very sweet calm voice) you are very tight. Then wam! I am feeling pain in my neck from the needle she placed in my shoulder. So I let her know and she says (in her very calm voice) oh...you have a lot of stagnant chi and blood in this shoulder. I am thinking, yes and pain also. She says (in her very calm voice) all that heaviness is normal, we are moving chi around. Ok at this point I am thinking...let the chi be!...this is not what I was expecting. She gives me a space blanket and says she will be checking on me later. You know at this point you are laying face down on a table with just your undies and 25 needles in you back and buttocks...you aren't going anywhere! True to her word she comes back and rescues me in about 30 minutes and lets me get dressed and comes back to tell me if I am going to get the desired results, I need to subject myself to the torture chamber every week for a few weeks, after that we can drop back to every 2 weeks. She says (in her very calm voice) your body will be craving it every week, but we will spread it out. I am a bit skeptical! She also let me know that because of all the soft tissue work that we did, I will have very sore muscles just like a strenuous workout...well she got that on right! I feel like I have been to the gym with none of the pleasure. To top it all off, she suggested I cancel my massage today...I don't know...that is really pushing it. I have been looking forward to that massage all week. Just in case you are wondering, the hip and shoulder pain are gone...wooohooo! and I am grateful.
Love,
Mom

Update on Papa

We saw the lung specialist today. He is scheduled for the biopsy tomorrow at 1pm. We cancelled the appointment with Dr. Wood on 12/23/08 since the results will not be back for 7 to 10 days. We have a new appointment on 12/29/08 at 1pm. We are hoping and praying for good results from the biopsy. The 80 mg of oxycontin seems to be helping with the pain along with the radiation treatments. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Love,
Mama Diane

December weather in SC

It is suppose to be 70 today in the upstate. Can you belive it? I'm glad I bought that lightweight Christmas sweater on clearance last year. It has served me well.

Great Idea

This was a wonderful idea. I look forward to be able to add to the blog. I hope we will have good news about papa after the biopsy and the appointment with the Dr. on 12/23/08.
Love to all,
Mama Diane

We finally got our Christmas tree decorated yesterday. It is lovely. Gill even helped with the wooden decorations. Of course he dug it out of the attic and carried it downstairs also. He has gone to his spanish class and I have the morning to pick up and clean up. Am about to make some lunch for the two of us. It is nice to have a morning at home since we did not have ladies bible class and my hair appt. was moved til tomorrow. Sue's daughter in law is having their first grand baby today. She is so excited. So glad to hear that Baby Fipps is doing well. Love to all. MaMaPat

pictures for your enjoyment

once you open the site, then click on one for the tiled pictures then slide show to view the pictures bigger. or you can view them full screened. they aren't that exciting, just from the past year. (the ones from charleston were spring break 2004?)

http://jrjaws.shutterfly.com

i threw a few pictures onto this site so you all could see them.

Hope you enjoy, some are funny,

Photos

I found a really neat site to edit photos and enhance them...picnik.com It is really cool and free!

Me and daisy with her new Christmas sweater. She loves it even though, i will admit, it is hideous:) she is so warm in it. so she loves putting it on these days.

Baby Fipps

All is going well in the Fipps womb. There is lots of movement and Corey says "are you doing high knees or vertical setting? and if you are, make sure your wrists are together." to the baby all the time. :) i keep telling him it's a girl so no need to be doing football drills. but activity is good. so we are happy for that. we tried to listen to the heartbeat with the fetalscope mom let us use. but all he could hear was stomach noises. so we will need to work on that and we really couldn't remember which end went on the tummy. lol. oh well, we will figure all this out in time.
Of course, everyone i talk to wonders which Dr. i'm going to and what the gender is and all that good stuff. so i explain what we are doing, which we really don't know yet, and why we are waiting until the beginning of Feb. to do any blood work or anything. However, i did find out that if i go to the health dept here in town, b/c we have no insurance, I might be able to get some stuff for very cheap. we will see. I am really against doing anything until there is something that can be done if there are any abnormal findings. at this point there is nothing that could be done except worry. and everyone knows i dont need anymore stress these days. ok before i start on a negative rant I will just say goodbye! love and miss everyone!

Sunday evening service

I had to work really hard to stay focused at services last night. David disappeared 3 songs before the sermon...I thought oh he forgot something, dad thought his phone must have rang. The song leader gets ready to lead the last song and makes some comment about after this song we will have the lesson, if the preacher returns...we all sing very slowly...Charles gets up and goes over to Amber, whispers in her ear...she shakes her head, saying no he's fine, no need to check on him...I'm thinking...he is up to something. He is going to have some grand entrance as an illustration or something. Well, as the song ends, David walks in with a tissue hanging out of his nostril...I am thinking...he is mocking James Goodman, who has just had a terrible time with nose bleeds, ...David this really isn't cool!... he gets up and explains that he has just had a bad nosebleed and couldn't get it stopped...proceeded to teach his lesson, although a bit shortened. He did a great job although a bit nasally..made all his points. Very impressive...the show must go on.

things around thanksgiving

This is Kara, Ezekiel, and Adam posing for a picture after zeeks bath

This is Zeek playing like he is asleep, i think so the girls would quit bothering him.

This is us going to the loomis day before thanksgiving parade. zeek loved it until they fake police shot a rubber chicken, then he wanted nothign to do with the parade.

This is Amanda, Carlene, and Kara holding up their ornaments that they represent. Just thought i'd make you laugh while Amanda is still sleeping

Today I went to the Beacon to ring the bell for the Salvation Army with other red hatters. Boy was it cold. It took me 2 hours under the electric blanket to thaw out. We had a great time even in the cold wind. We took in about 50 dollars in a two hour period and the other ladies did well also. We were there from 8 a m until 7 p m. It will be interesting to see just how much the total will be. We wore our red pants and purple sweat shirts and santa hats. It was really interesting to see who was willing to give. The ones you would least expect to have anything to give were the ones who consistantly donated.
Love, MaMaPat

Amanda,
We are all dying to see pictures of Lake Tahoo and hear about your trip.
Did you end up getting sick? I told Jay that he was not to share everything he had. Hopefully he kept that to himself :)
Take care!
Love you guys!

Winter vacation

Well, we always know it is getting winter time as Jay Sr. needs a little vacation. He spend one week every year laying on the couch, sipping gatorade and catching up on all the old movies and SciFi that he never has time to watch otherwise. He is at the end of this year's vacation and I think he is grateful! He is feeling rested and ready to tackle all the work that has been left undo. He had a massage today by the fabulous therapist at the birth center and then off to a nice soak in the hydrotherapy tub. We are seeing our chiropractor this afternoon. What a great way to start the weekend. Love Mom

Merry Christmas

Family Time

This is a project I have been wanting to start for some time now and as you know, life happens and this project kept getting put on the back burner. My goal here is to connect our ever growing, ever spreading family. My hope is you will post your sunny days as well as your cloudy ones. I would love to see pictures, events, silliness, seriousness and everything in between. Take the time to check the blog every few days and post what is happening in your life.
Love,
Mom