June Claire turns FOUR!

This sweet little girl turned four on April 21! 

I know, I know. I'm almost a month late.

Better late than never, though!

Miss June is sweet, sassy, and everything in between. 

We threw her a Minnie Mouse birthday party, which she LOVED.

She recently started full-day preschool (but stays home with me if I don't have any appointments) and has grown in leaps and bounds. She is still seeing a speech therapist and is excelling there. She will officially start K4 this fall - we got the paperwork yesterday to sign her up. 

Junebug, you love anything Minnie Mouse (you have several outfits and a pair of shoes that are Minnie Mouse and you wear them almost every day - as often as I'll let you!), Doc McStuffins, babies, bubbles, and anything to do with your hands. You especially love putting together puzzles, and you do a great job at it! You have a wooden tool bench that you play with almost every day. You build lots of great things. And you love blocks and are SO proud when you build things with them! Yesterday you and Sara built a zoo inside a city. I love your imagination. You keep us laughing every single day and is the best medicine anyone could ever give me.And you defend your family until the last breath. The other morning Sara said, "Mama - you're looking mighty chubby this morning!"and you let her know real quick that your mama was not chubby and she was being mean. :)

 It's okay sweetheart - I am okay with being chubby, as long as I get to be your mama! 

I think this picture says it all. She was pretty excited to get her very own "iPad".

I cannot believe my baby is four years old. She has come so far from the tiny 1 pound, 15 ounce, 13 inch little miracle that she used to be. God blessed us so much with her and I hope never to forget that. June Claire, mama, daddy and Sara love you more than anything and we are so thankful you get to be our daughter and little sister. You are a good one - most of the time. :)

Menu Plan Monday 5/5-5/11

MONDAY: creamy ranch chicken, rice, english peas and crescent rolls

TUESDAY: creamy lemon chicken over pasta, salad and garlic bread

WEDNESDAY: chicken pot pie

THURSDAY: frozen pizza, salad

FRIDAY: shrimp scampi, salad, green beans

SATURDAY: we have a birthday party to attend!

SUNDAY: something NOT prepared by me :)

I'm linking up over at The Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday - check her out & share your menu plan for the week!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Life has a not-so funny way of throwing lemons at you, know what I mean? 

But as the saying goes -

"When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!"

Or in my case, make sweet tea because we are in Alabama and that's what we drink down here!

So that what we are doing.

One year to the day of my relapse last year, I relapsed again. 

It wasn't quite so bad this time. I haven't even felt sick.

I've been back in the hospital for six weeks today. 

If the bone marrow biopsy results look good,

I will go home this week.

But the BEST news is that the spinal and brain fluid shows remission 

after just four weeks of treatment!

I hope to be back to regularly blogging within a week.

Til then, we are continuing to give God the glory for these lemons He blessed us with.

Why I've Been Absent

 

This happened last Thursday.

 

 

Took little JC to the doctor - and she was admitted into the hospital.

 

 

A case of pneumonia, good medicine, and lots of snuggles later - we came home on Sunday.

 

These are the sweetest girls, I tell ya'll what. Sara was so concerned with making sure her little sissy was taken care of. She read to her, played blocks with her,

 and was there as much as her daddy would let her.

 

 

This is entirely too cold for my liking. This was a couple days ago - and today we have the AC on.

Ridiculous.

 I'm off to stand in front of the freezer.

 Excuse me while I sweat giant balls of fluid off my body.

WLW, Week 7

Starting: 220

Week 1: 181

Week 2: 177.6

Week 3: 176.2

Week 4: ?

Week 5: 174.8

Week 6: 174.0

I lost .8 pounds this week for a total of 46 pounds!

I'm so close to that 50 pound mark I can taste it.

I know .8 isn't a big loss, but I'll take what I can get and just keep on keeping on.

I ate better this week (as in, no junk, less carbs, more fruits & veggies) but exercise is still at a minimum for me. I do have a pretty hard 45 minute session of therapy twice a week, and I walk about 1/2 mile every day, but it's a slow go. I'll get there, though, I have no doubt!

The germs have invaded our house again.

For the past two nights, June has woke up at 2 or 2:30 with a 100.5 fever & crying.

Doctors office says it's a virus & has to run its course, but I feel so bad for my sweet girl.

Last night she told us

"It o-tay, mama and dad-dy.God make me all bet-ter! Rara (Sara) be so hap=py for me!"

We could all use a little faith like that.

November Favorites!

A little late - but better late than never!

Up first is this VS aSweet Almond Oil lotion.

It's amazing. The smell isn't the same since my transplant, but before, it was heavenly.

About $14 for the bottle, and this is my second one.

This is a long-time favorite of mine & has been in more than one favorites post!

It's about $4 at any drugstore & I have not found anything affordable that is comparable.

I just picked up the Grapeseed mask in this line & hate it. I'll stick to Mint Julep!

A new favorite, the EOS shave cream is incomparable to anything I've ever tried.

It's about $4, so a little high for shave cream - but definitely worth the price tag!

I picked this Shea Moisture oil up from Target a couple weeks ago & can't stop using it. 

It takes very little and is SO moisturizing. 

I think this would especially be good in the summer, if you lay out and the sun dries you out.

I haven't made this ina  couple years, but the homemade laundry detergent is a hit in this house!

1 cup washing soda, 1 cup Borax, 1 bar Fels Naptha soap = cheap, clean clothes!

Christmas decorations are going up over here! I'll share the full reveal later this week, but we've been slowly getting them up & going!

My last favorite is something I just discovered this week.

 Ebates is something I've always heard about but never signed up for - and I regret it now!

Free money for ordering things online? I"ll take that!

Weekend Recap & Meal Plan Monday!

Hey ya'll! We had a really great weekend - and I hope you did, too! We left out Friday afternoon for my hometown, and we stayed there until Sunday evening. Mike went hunting (didn't catch anything, unfortunately), we attended a graduation party (congratulations to my brother-in-law for graduating college! And of course I did not get one single good picture!), a birthday party and lots of good times with family. I was whooped when I got out of bed this morning. Matter of fact, we overslept. I woke up at 6:35 and Sara had to be out the door at 6:55. We made it with the mercy of God! :)

Like I said, Friday evening we attended a graduation party. My brother-in-law Kyle graduated college after working at it for 9 years - between enlisting in the USAF, basic, tech school, moving internationally twice, within the States too many times to count, and moving house too many times to count. And retiring from the USAF as well. We are all very proud of him and he is an inspiration to us!

Saturday morning the girls & I woke up to realize...it was the Christmas parade day! So we bundled up and headed downtown to the square for the parade. 

Waiting on all the fun to begin!

The little police station beside the river.

I love this view. This is the Tallapoosa river, and located on this river are several dams. This is the one that separates our town into the east and west sides. The bridge is about a mile long and curved. I've heard that at one time, it was the longest curved bridge in the US. I don't have anything to back that up, though, but I don't care - it's still beautiful! Also, legend has it that when the bridge/dam was built in the 30's or 40's, that a man fell off into the wet concrete and was swallowed up alive. Legend also has it that there are fish as big as cows and school buses down there - hence the movie Big Fish, which was filmed about this river - and parts were also filmed in this town.

Can you get any more nostalgic? Fire engine, American flag, police department.

Notice the tiger on the water tower? Go Tallassee Tigers!

How and why they need Segways in this town, I have no idea!

If there's anybody reading this that works for the city, next year you should have these guys LEADING the parade! What better way to open up with than with these two flags?

If you live in the area - check out A Dash of Fashion! I LOVE the owner - she's a wonderful Christian woman who has prayed many times for me and I for her. Such a great business to support!

 
A long time favorite -the old cars!

This was just about the end of the parade, and the girls were freezing so we headed back to the car to check out the loot they got:

Sara decided she wanted to try a Warhead.

These pictures explain themselves.

Be sure you have a Kleenex handy - you'll laugh so hard you'll cry!

One of the funniest things I've ever seen!

Sunday, it was freezing and foggy. We headed to little Owen Adler's second birthday party, and this was the scene that awaited us. I thought it was so pretty!

Owen was born while I was in the hospital in Atlanta the first go around. I remember my mama telling me he was here, and I remember praying his mama hadn't had too much of a hard time.

Owen is the spunkiest little fellow around! 

And he is giving his mama payback for her shenanigans as a child! 

"MORE TANDY, MAMA! I DOT MORE TANDY!"

The weekend ended with supper (thanks mama!) and some quality family time. 

I think they're excited, don't you?!

Now on to Meal Plan Monday.

Monday: cheese manicotti with salad and garlic bread

Tuesday: sun-dried tomato chicken sausage sauteed with onions and potatoes, mixed veggies 

Wednesday: chicken spaghetti (pulled from the freezer) and green beans

Thursday: bean soup with diced ham, cornbread

Friday: fish fillets (don't judge), fries, peas

Saturday: herb marinated porkchops, southern squash casserole, lima beans

Sunday: Christmas with my dad!

I stayed on plan last week and I am SO proud of myself. The week went exactly according to schedule, but the weekend variated just a bit. I made the meatballs Friday night like I'd planned, and since I was at my moms (ie - limited groceries in her pantry!) I used a pack of mushroom onion gravy mix, a pack of Lipton onion soup mix, and water. They turend out SO good! Saturday night I made taco casserole, which consisted of shell pasta, ground beef, taco seasoning, a jar of salsa, a can of crushed tomatoes, shredded cheese and crushed tortillas on top. Served with chopped green onion & sour cream - so delicious! Sunday my mama made chili. 

As usual, I'm linking up over at Organizing Junkie. 

I always get lots of great ideas from those ladies!