Thirteen

Just a few short minutes ago, at 6:14 a.m. to be exact, my baby boy turned 13!!

How did this happen??

Where did the time go??

Can somebody please send me the customer service number where I can make a complaint about children growing up without their mom's permission??

What's a mom to do? Well, I guess I'll spend this day like I do most others: being so very proud of my amazing son. He's smart, funny, tender-hearted and so good-natured.

I used to joke that he never went through the "terrible twos" and he still hasn't - he just doesn't have a cranky bone in him!

So here are some pictures of my baby. I won't force you to watch the 8-minute slide show!! :)

This last picture was just a few minutes ago. (notice the remnants of the traditional birthday donut cake) He doesn't like to have his picture taken anymore. I had to use my mother's guilt to get this one!

Happy Birthday Joshie. You are one of the best things I've ever done.

Love,

Mom

Big Day

It's a big day here at the Wright house. Long story short...Patrick met a girl from Virginia on Facebook and she's flying here today to spend a week with us.

I know. I know. It's a lil' bit strange but really OK. They've talked, texted, facebooked and skyped for months now. I spent about 30 minutes talking to her and her parents Sunday night. (Richard had to skip out to be at Southlakes.) They are completely worried about their 19-year-old daughter trekking cross country to meet this dread-locked boy. I've tried to put myself in their place and 'bout had a panic attack just thinking about Roman doing something like that!

Patrick is so excited.

Who knows how it will go.

Times are so different, aren't they???

B.

p.s. Josh's team went all the way to the finals of the state tournament but ended up losing. It was so exciting to be a part of that and being #2 in the state ain't bad, right?

Take State!

These guys
will be playing in the semi-finals of the state tournament tomorrow. If they win in the morning, they advance to the finals in the afternoon. If they win the tourney, they advance to regionals in South Carolina in June. It's all so very exciting!!!

So, I bought them these
cuz I'm sure it will help them win!!! Aren't they cute?

Go Celtic 96! Take State!

Proud Mom of #26

Cousins

First of all, let me just tell you about my day yesterday. I spent ALL DAY on the computer.....scanning pics, getting pics off wal mart cd's, organizing the pics on my hard drive and.........drum roll please........I made a slide show - WITH music - for Josh's 13th birthday party!!!

All.

By.

Myself.

(and one little phone call to walmart photo tech support.)

And today........I'm cross-eyed!!!

Ok. Ok. Back to the subject of this post. I had a surprise party for my mother-in-law Sunday evening for her big 6-0! It was lots of fun. She was surprised. yada yada yada. And all the cousins were together again - which doesn't happen too often now that the big ones are out doing their own thang, kwim?

So I had to get a cousins picture. And then I had to compare it to another one I had. This is from Christmas 2000. Sam, my nephew, hadn't even come on the scene yet.
Front row: Roman, Josh, Wyatt and Kenzie. Back row: Jeremy, Brandon, Kayla, Logan and Patrick.

And then, from Sunday:
Front row: Sam and Logan. 2nd row: Kayla, Roman, Kenzie and Jeremy. Back row: Brandon, Josh, Wyatt and Patrick.

Wowzers!!! Where did the time go?
They are such a sweet group. They get along so well when they're together and treat each other like brothers and sisters!

My kids are so lucky!

B.

10 Years Later

I thought I would do a post yesterday about the May 3rd tornado since it was the 10 year anniversary but I was too busy getting ready for my mother-in-law's surprise party and taking pics of pieces of saran wrap hanging under my cabinet!!

So it had to wait until 10 years and 1 day later!

This post is more a memory-keeper for me than anything else. Roman was only 8 months old and Josh was just turning 3 so they don't really remember it. The big boys remember more. I wish I had written down everything I saw, heard, and felt those few days and weeks after that monster tornado changed our lives forever.

So here are the most memorable parts:

It was a Monday afternoon/early evening. Cutest Boy was working on his MBA and had a class on Monday nights. He was having back pain issues and decided not to go to class that night - the only class he missed in that program! He came home and we watched this storm develop in Lawton - which is 1 1/2 hours from us - while we ate dinner. This is crazy to me now - that we watched this massive storm that was coming for us but we didn't know it at the time.

I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life and have had to "take tornado precautions" before so I wasn't too worried. When it was in Chickasha headed to Bridgecreek, Gary England (the ONLY weatherman for us) was tracking it in our direction. At that point, Cutest Boy thought we should probably leave. I really thought we would be OK - I had dinner to clean up, laundry to fold and mounds of clothes and toys I was going through to get ready for a garage sale the next weekend. We had just been through a close call that October and nothing came of it, right?

Then it got to I-44 and was headed for my best friend's house. She's across town from us but CB decided it was time to go. We loaded up all the kids and the dog and headed to my MIL's house in Midwest City to get in their cellar. (Who knew it would eventually track about a mile from there!!) I remember driving away, talking to Katrina, crying because it was headed right at her. I was so scared for her! It ended going about a mile north of her but cut straight through the heart of south OKC - where so many of our friends from church lived.

The rest of the night is kinda foggy to me. I remember riding out the storm in the cellar, coming out and debris was falling out of the sky like rain. There was the smell of natural gas in the air and it was so weirdly calm. No electricity at my in-laws and I remember it started getting warm and muggy.

And we had no idea what was going on at our house. It was hard to tell by listening to the radio if our neighborhood had been hit - we knew it was close, but not certain.

I had to respond to a Code Black at the hospital - they were expecting massive casualties. I can't even remember the patients I saw that night but I do remember a Chaplain saying he thought my neighborhood had been hit. I couldn't even think that thought.

After CB dropped me at the hospital, he tried to go to our house. He couldn't even get close to it - trying from every direction. We even tried again after he picked me up at midnight. We spent that night not knowing what we would find the next day.

Here's what we came home to:

This is the back of our house. We didn't take a direct hit - this was all wind and debris damage.

Side note: I don't even know where some of these pics came from. I don't remember taking any pictures but I sure wish I had. I was just so numb for days. I do know that Clifton Briscoe gave us a bunch of "general" pictures but I don't remember taking any!

This is looking into the dining/kitchen area. What you can't see is the layer of mud and glass on everything. I've always said there was the tin from 2 barns in my front room! But, the vase with the guppies in it (on the bar to the left of Brandon's head if you look closely) was sitting there undisturbed!

To this day, I am so thankful my husband thought to drive us away from there. We would have been fine in the bathroom we would have hid in but to walk out to that MESS...oh my.


This is photo is looking toward my neighborhood from the adjacent field. If you can click and make it larger you can see the houses more clearly. Several houses on our street - just a few down from us - were almost wiped out. About half a mile from us, 2 men died at their work place.

We spent that summer in CB's best friend's mom's guest house. Super small - but not a bad way to spend our time since they had lots of land and a beautiful pool. We were out of our house for about 4 1/2 months and got a great re-model out of it all.

I remember so many helpful people - friends and others that just wanted to "do something." I remember never wanting for anything. I remember going through the house and making list after list of things that were destroyed but knowing that all the important things had been saved. I remember the insurance company being so easy to work with - making sure we were reimbursed for every little thing. I remember the construction company that worked on the house did a wonderful job.

It's hard to believe that you cannot tell where that tornado ate up the countryside and destroyed house after house. 10 years ago, I was convinced that we could never get rid of all the debris and devastation. Go to www.kfor.com - I think they have a whole section called May's Fury. We watched the special Saturday night. It's hard to believe that happened to us!

There's so much more - but this post is definitely long enough!

But, of course, all the glory is the Lord's. He knew Richard shouldn't be away from his family that night and then He led him to drive us away from the terror we would have experienced if we'd stayed. He directed our steps that night and in the days following.

For that, I am grateful!

B.

Can Your Dust Bunnies Do This?

I know this appears to be some sort of magic or illusion that might be performed by Houdini himself but...........no..........
It's just a piece of plastic wrap suspended in mid-air by the power of..........trumpet sounds here........dust bunnies!

This post brought to you by the Cutest Boy on the Block who thought this blog-worthy. Funny thing is I left this there for a few weeks cuz it cracked us up! It's the little things in life, right?

Another slow news day in the rain-soaked heartland!

B. - who would like to see the sun shine!

Mammogram Scare

...or the scariest, most horrifying day of my life.

So, I had my first mammogram the other day. (see my post from Tuesday.) About 3 hours after the test, I got a call from the Breast Center asking me to come back for some more views of the right side.

I'm so NOT a worry wart. I didn't jump to any conclusions or start planning my funeral. Cutest Boy did, though. He was more than a little concerned. I had heard that it was not uncommon to be called back in for more pictures.

I went back yesterday. As I was sitting in the waiting room listening to Kathie Lee Gifford be completely self-indulgent, I started getting a weird "vibe."

The staff was looking at me differently. Their voices were quieter, more solemn.

The radiologist gets me in the room and tells me the doctor saw something and that because it was my first mammogram and because I have such dense breast tissue (code speak for "your boobs are fat), she wanted another test. Could be something. Could be nothing.

That seemed pretty straight forward. So, she gets 4 more views and says, "Follow me. You'll be having an ultrasound in this room."

What??????!!!!!!!!

I'm thinking: She saw something that warrants an ultrasound???!!! I have breast cancer.

She sits me in a quiet dark room to wait for the US tech. She comes in, gets me on the table and starts the test.

I'm laying there trying not to start crying. So, my breathing is rapid and jerky. I close my eyes and desperately try to quote scripture.

Nothing. I can't grab anything from my brain.

So, I try to make a list in my mind for everything I need to do to get ready for my mother-in-law's surprise party Sunday night.

I can't even do that. My mind is racing.

Panic and fear are trying to take over my body and I'm desperately trying to fight them off but I can't even get a prayer to form in my brain. The tech asks me if she's hurting me and I realize that tears have slipped from the corners of my eyes. I am losing the battle.

About then, I grab the song "Strong Tower" and sing it - or some version of it - in my mind. I wish I could say peace washed over me, but it didn't. I was sinking.

She finished about then. And, in a quiet voice told me she would get the doctor. Another bad sign. Why do I need to see the doctor unless it's bad news?

As I sit there, I am completely overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty. I'm sure every scenario of my life passed through my mind in those few minutes I was in there alone.

But, my worst fears did not come true yesterday. The doctor kindly delivered the news that I have two cysts, benign, that will probably resolve on their own. No more treatment required. Come back in a year.

I'm still processing that whole 45-minute ordeal. I had a terrible day and evening after that. Today that sounds a little ridiculous but I'm still a little shell-shocked. I've never, ever dealt with anything like that with my own health, my own mortality.

I didn't like it.

B.