Wishing & Hoping

So now that the Olympics are winding down I am going to write about them. We have done a lot of watching of all of the sports over the past 2 weeks. Jack has been absolutely entrhralled with every sport that we have watched - which worries me. For those of you who don't know, I HATE THE COLD WEATHER and I don't do the snow. Jon is from the north so it probably wouldn't bother him. I keep telling Jack that the only "winter" sport that he can like is hockey. Yes, we have hockey in Jacksonville. Which is a nice break from the 95 degree heat. But all of the other sports, like the snowboarding, skiing, figure skating, curling (whatever that sport is), speed skating, all of them, that involve actually living where it is cold on a regular basis with a good amount of snow on the ground, I don't think so. Hopefully, we can really get him into sports that are good Florida sports, you know the ones that are played pretty much year round here - soccer, golf, baseball, all of those.

Just thought that I would share.

Look who's gone all crafty

Ok, I admit I am not crafty. Not remotely. Not like Angela and especially not like Rachel but I am trying. When I started planning Jon's welcome home party, I started looking for invitations. Ok, here's the deal he will be home the weekend before Memorial Day and the party is Memorial Day weekend. I thought oh no problem on finding patriotic things online right. WRONG! So I decided to make my own - with a little help of course. There is a lady that I work with at the church that should really open up her own business making cards, no not greeting cards, but personalized note cards, thank you cards and invitations. She is great and so creative. Anyway back to my story. So I enlisted Debbie's help and decided to make my own invitations. I went to Hobby Lobby, Michael's and AC Moore yesterday and practically bought them out of their patriotic scrapbook paper (all sizes).

What I did was took what Debbie made and printed it out on white cardstock and then cut it a little smaller than the scrapbook paper and attached it to the paper with the ever fantastic glue dots and ta-da homemade invitations. I only have a picture of one right now because that is all I have done is one because trying to do them with a two year old in the house is a lot easier said than done. "Jack help, Mommy." I have about 8 or 9 different kinds of scrapbook paper so many of them will be different. I promise to put up more pictures as I get them but I really wanted ya'll to see what Debbie did cuz it is so cute (please forgive my horrible English right there).

A Sweet Reward and A Future Gator

This week started off really good with a day trip to Savannah with my best friend Jess. We had such a good time. Tuesday was when the fun began. When I arrived at work on Tuesday I was informed that our email was still down. It went down late Thursday afternoon. The best part was that they had no idea when it would be back up. The week went downhill from there. Wedenesday greeted me with an issue at Jack's daycare involving him biting a child and then a teacher (not his teacher or even the director of the center) told my mom that the next time that he bit a child that I would receive a call telling me to come and pick him up for the rest of the day and if the biting continued then "further actions would be taken." Let me just says this and I will be done with it, since he has been there I have never been notified of the biting policy so all of this information was new to me. Today I had to go to St. Augustine to pick up a form to renew our license plate (we get it free - thank you National Guard) so while I was there I wandered in my home away from home - the place that I lived for almost 6 years. On my way out I went and treated myself and my bestie Jess to an amazing cupcake from Luli's. Jess had to work so I dropped it off at her house and then when I talked to her tonight both her and her son have the flu. I brought my cupcake home and throughly enjoyed the red velvet goodness. Here is a picture of it.

So after I got home from St. Augustine I was trying to decide what Jack and I were going to do tonight. In case you don't know, I love all things Gators. Tonight down in Gainesville there was a softball tournament, a baseball game and a gymnastics meet. So away we went to Gainesville for the night and a good time was had by all. Jack was sure that we were going to watch "basketball" which in Jack translates to football but I had to break it to him that the Gators were not playing "basketball" and he wanted to take his ball and I had to assure him that they had plenty. I did however take him into Ben Hill Griffin and he was just astounded.

My Future Gator

Taking it all in

We had so much fun tonight. He wasn't so sure about all of the noise in the O'Connell Center tonight but he loved the band and he just sat and watched the gymnast flip and fly. I asked him if he had fun and he said "yeah mommy." He also told Jon "Gooo Gators" - I thought Jon was going to cry. :o)

94 days and counting...

I can't believe that we are in double digit numbers and are 4 days away from being 3 months away from him coming home!!!! In some ways it has flown by but in many other ways it has dragged. I am slowly starting to prepare for him to come home. I am so excited and so ready for him to come home. Oh how I have missed him.


For now.

15 Years Ago

When 2010 began I started to think back over the past 10 years. Mainly because this November marks 10 years since my dad passed away. But then I realized something even more amazing - 15 years ago a major change happened that forever changed my family.

My dad was diagnosed with Type 1, Juvenile Diabetes, at the age of 8. He had to learn how to give himself insulin shots and learned what he could and couldn't eat. I realized that my dad was different from all of the other dads when I was 8 or 9 because he had stop working because he was declared legally blind. I remember that it totally devestated my dad. He loved working, he loved coaching my ball team and he loved working on cars.

Around the time I was 11, my dad's kidneys started failing and therefore he had to start dialysis. This process really took its toll on my dad. It made him really sleepy all the time and he started missing a lot of things. A BIG side note - my mom was absolutely amazing during them time that my dad was sick. She was our family's rock and continued to love my dad unconditionally no matter how sick he got. My mom and dad had to start making trips to Gainesville to see about the possibility of a kidney transplant. 

Well, when the organ that is being transplanted is one that can be done from living patient to living patient the hospital tends to look to the family first. Thank the Lord that my dad has 7 brothers and sisters. The University of Florida began the testing of all of the Jacobs clan and it came down to 2 siblings. My uncle Don was the one that was ultimately chosen to give my dad one of his kidneys.

In late August 1995, while most of my dad's brothers and sisters and my mom gathered in Gainesville to await the outcome of the surgery, my sister and I continued about our normal day-to-day life here in Jacksonville. I was 12 and my sister was 10 so we were old enough to understand the implications of what was happening and all of the outcomes that could occur. Well the surgery was a great success. My mom was able to come and pick up my sister and I so that we could go and see my dad and my uncle down in Gainesville.

My dad looked and felt great. My uncle on the other hand, not so much. Here's why - shortly after the surgery when the doctor and a nurse came in to check my uncle's incision they took his morphine button away and forgot to give it back. So basically he went off of morphine cold turkey. Let's just say there was some hallucinations going on and it was funny to all of us but him. And if you ask him if he would like some chicken or beef buillion cubes he is most likely to tell you NO (that is pretty much all he could eat for a week or so). I found out later that they had to take out a rib and a half of my unlce's - he  is a very tall man. The one kidney that he gave to my dad took over for both of my dad's kidneys. My dad had one working kidney and one not so good kidney.

The reason for me writing this is for me to tell my uncle Don how much I appreciated what he did for my dad and for our family. I know that my dad, my sister, and my mom have told them time and time again what it meant to them but I never knew how to say what I wanted to say.

To my Uncle Don-

I am sorry that it has taken me 15 years to get around to telling you how much I appreciated what you did for my dad in giving him your kidney. It has been completely overwhelming everything that has happened in the past 15 years. In giving my dad your kidney, you gave him an extra 5 years to spend with us, to see us grow up. You also gave him an extra 5 years to have an opportunity to have a closer relationship with you. Thank you for being there for us whenever we needed you. Thank you for giving me an extra 5 years with my dad to experience things that I might not have gotten to experience otherwise. Just thank you. I love you.

This is my dad.

This is me and my Uncle Don

Sorry this was such a long post.

Complete Randomness

So this post is going to be one of complete randomness. I have some new pictures to put up too.

1. I am completely loving the Beth Moore study that I am taking right now. I already feel a change occurring.

2. I have lost 3 pounds since Friday. I am taking 3 classes a week and they are totally kicking my butt.

3. On Feb 15, my bestie and I are taking a day trip to Savannah and I AM SO EXCITED. We are going to eat at the Lady and Sons and wonder around the town.

4. We are moving closer and closer to Jon coming home. A little over 3 1/2 months.

5. Tomorrow is the last day of Pastors' Conference and it will be the only day that I am working the Conference. It is the first time in 3 years that I haven't been there for the whole thing.

Now for the pictures....

His shirt says "Handsome Just like My Daddy"