Updates...

Becky had her PET scan Thursday (yes, I said in the previous one that it was either an MRI or CAT scan, but I was wrong.) She said it went well, but she won't have any of the results for about 3-4 more weeks. That part is not fun. But, the good news is that her dr had told her that if he was even the least bit concerned about the results, he would refer her more quickly to a collegue, but he's not. So, that is why she will not see her dr and get the results until he gets back from his 2 week vacation. (Ah, the life a dr must live.) We are just claiming that the test results come back completely clear.

Thursday was also Eisley's 9 month birthday. I just really can not believe how fast time has flown by. I feel like Mia's first year was the longest ever, and poor Eisley's first year is just a blurr. We took her to her 9 month check-up, and once again, she is doing WONDERFUL! She is now weighing in at 17 pounds 13 ounces and is 27.25 inches long. This is just wonderful! It puts her in the 25-50 percentile, which is completely average. Its amazing to think back to only a short 3-6 months ago when she was struggling to even make the weight charts, and now she is doing wonderful. In the past two weeks she has also started crawling. Now it is still a good army crawl, but hopefully she will pick those knees up and start crawling more efficiently within the next few weeks. She gets what she is crawling after, and that's all that matters to her, I guess. She babbles like crazy, saying "da-da", "ba-ba", and even sounds like she says "hi" after we say it to her. Its super cute. "Ma-ma" will come, eventually. :)

So now, I am just finishing up some laundry to get packed once again to go out of town. This time, we are leaving this Sunday through Friday to go down to Austin again for a church camp. This one will be very fun. Its with our pastor and his family, and lots of other friends of ours. Its always a week of fun! So, I will not be writing next week, so don't miss me. :) The girls are going to be spending part of the week with my parents and the second part of the week with Jody's parents. I am so thankful for our amazing parents that they would want to love on and spoil our girls for a week so that I can be with Jody at camp. We are so blessed! Have a great week!

This is actually from Eisley's 7mth checkup in May, she's a little bigger than this now. :)

This was how Mia felt about Eisley getting a shot. Thankfully Eisley didn't need any shots at her 9mth apt

Fear...

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

So, Jesus died on the cross, not only for our sins, but so that He could bring Heaven to Earth. He was bringing healing, peace, everything, so that we can experience LIFE! Because of Jesus' death on the cross, we are HEALED.

Last Thursday was like any other day. Mia went to Mother's Day Out, I got a few things finished around the house, and then got ready for my parents to come over for dinner. UNTIL, Jody's parents called and told him they were coming to town to visit someone in the hospital (Jody's dad is a pastor, so this is common.) Jody's sister and her husband were also in town working with Habitat for Humanity with their youth group. Jody's dad asked if they could come over when they got into town and talk with all of us. Jody tried to get his dad to tell him what they needed to talk to us about that they would drive 2 hours, but Randy wouldn't budge. The way he was somewhat lighthearted in his conversation made us think that they were probably moving, maybe they received an offer at another church. We had no clue. So, we waited for them to get to town. Of course, during our wait, many things flooded our minds with "what if."

So, Amy, Zach, Randy, and Becky all arrive to our house, and after we all sit down, Amy says, "so are yall moving or what?" Becky then tells us, "no, I wish." You see, Becky has been sick off and on for a very long time, nothing severe, just many, many, somewhat small things. She is a diabetic and has just had all sorts of other health issues. It’s kind of ridiculous. (She will tell you that too.) She recently had some skin patches pop up on different parts of her legs, so two weeks previously, she had seen a dermatologist who took samples from the patches and sent them to get tested. In the mean time, one patch became infected, so she saw her local Childress dr to get antibiotics. During her visit at the dr last Wednesday afternoon, her Childress dr decided to call the dermatologist to see if Becky's results were in yet. Well, they were, and the results were not good. The dr said the results came back as cancer. It is called T-cell Lymphoma. (I think that’s what it’s called.) We were all shocked with this news. This doesn't happen to people you know, much less people you love DEARLY, much less your family. Honestly, we all handled it pretty well. Some tears were shed, but we all seemed pretty peaceful. We all know that our God is the ultimate HEALER and he can heal Becky of this cancer. I can't imagine how we would have reacted if we didn't know this truth. Becky has remained so peaceful this past week. She has even been joking about it, especially about the way people react to her news. She could already write a book about peoples reactions to her cancer news. Its kind of funny, and I'm glad she is in such good spirits about it.

She went to the Oncologist Tuesday here in Amarillo for her first appointment, and we could not have received better news. The dr said he is familiar with this kind of cancer. It’s a cancer that usually stays on the skin, and will occasionally go internal, but it’s fairly rare. As long as it stays only on the skin, it can be treated with a topical steroid cream. People can live with this forever. He was not worried at all. He truly believes that it has not invaded her body, but she will have an MRI or CAT scan (I can't remember which) tomorrow to make sure its not internal. This was amazing news. Its amazing the burden that has lifted off each of us. I really thought we were all handling it so well, and we were, but it was weighing us each down emotionally and spiritually. We can each breathe a little better now. There will still be a fight ahead of us, but we can handle it. The Lord's strength is more than sufficient for this. We are over comers, Becky is an over comer! We praise the Lord for that! We would definitely appreciate each of your prayers during this time, and I will continue with updates. Blessings to each of you! Sarah

Becky when Eisley was born

Another fun week...

Well, about a week ago, my girls and I went to Wichita Falls with my sister and her girls to stay with my grandparents for a couple of days. We try to do this every summer, even though I wish is could be more. Both of our parents' families live in Wichita Falls, so we always have fun seeing our family. My mom's parents also have a great pool in their backyard, so its always so fun to do some swimming/laying on the water while we're there. This time I was a little bummed out though. I had full intentions on taking advantage of afternoon naptimes to lay in the pool and get a tan, but instead, it rained pretty much every day we were there. We were able to get the girls in the pool a few times when it wasn't raining, but not much time for me to get a tan alone. Oh well. We had a great time overall. Thanks Memaw and Papa and Memaw and Papa. (no, I was not repeating myself, and yes, both sets of my grandparents have the same grandparent names. Creative, I know.) Thanks for a great time, even though we had our fair share of melt downs with all the girls (well, except Eisley.) Three is the new Two, didn't you know. Anyways, we were there from Sunday until Wednesday. During our stay, my Memaw also taught me how to use my sewing machine that I got for my birthday 2 months ago. Watch out, I am now a sewing machine. (I will post pictures of that experience soon.) :)

I do have to also give a shout out to my amazing husband, even though he never reads this. Even though Jody was working so hard while we were gone, he did miss us a ton. (Sometimes its nice for the girls and me to do the leaving since he leaves us more to lead worship.) When I got home, I was greeted with an amazingly clean and picked up house, he installed Eisley's ceiling fan in her room that I've been waiting for over 9 months, and he bought me a great bouquet of flowers and a sweet card. He is amazing! I was pretty overwhelmed! Maybe we should go out of town more often.

This weekend, we are in Childress for Jody's cousin's wedding. We are having a great time, as always.

Here are some pictures of our fun times in Wichita Falls. Enjoy!

Before...

After...

Sisters, Eisley is not happy



All the cousins...Yes, Eisleys blond hair makes her look more like my sister's girls

Big girl! She did swim with floaties all by herself...She wanted to swim without any floaties or help from me...She kept saying, "I'm a big girl, mommy!" Her favorite saying

Yes, two different set of floatation devices..Safety First!

Mia and her cousins (Bailey and Addison)


With Papa J (sorry, Memaw, I didn't get a picture with you. Oops)

With Memaw and Papa W at IHOP the morning we left

Thursdays...

Thursdays are always great days. Mia goes to Mother's Day Out on Thursdays so that means that I get to have some time to myself (and Eisley). Its funny though, I usually find myself a little bored without a toddler running around asking me questions every minute. The peace is priceless.

I did make my first attempt at making homemade laundry detergent. It is as easy as Ashley said, UNTIL I went to take it out to my washer and dryer, and SPLASH! Yep, I dropped it. Needless to say, my garage has never been so sparkling clean! Oh well. It was probably best because I realized later that I had forgotten to put in the baking soda and Borax, you know, the vital ingredients. I made my second attempt this afternoon, and it did actually make it to the washer and dryer.

We then had a great night that night! We had some of our best friends Brad and Ashley (yes, the same Ashley as mentioned earlier.) and their two kids, Noah and Kayt, over. We had fun. I made some yummy pepperoni rolls. Then Ashley and I took the oldest kids down to the park for a little bit. The best part was that Ashley and I finally got some much needed alone time. (well, we did have to hop in the car, with Kayt in tow to try to drive her to sleep. Turns out, Kayt has an ear infection and that is why she was a little fussier than usual. She did go right to sleep though.) Ashley and I got some coffee and then sat in the car at the Park and just talked. It was so refreshing! Ashley and I have been friends for about 10 years now, and so many times I just miss the times that we could just go driving and talk and talk and talk. Ah, the good 'ole days. Summers are hard on our friendship with the Ingrams. With both of our husbands in ministry, summer is the busiest time for both of our families, so we usually have to just deal with the fact that we don't get to spend much time with our friends that only live 4 minutes away. Oh well. Summer will end, and we will have our friends back. So here are some fun pictures of our great night!

Kayt (9mths) and Eisley (8mths)

A rough day...

Well, I always try to prepare myself for the few days after being out of town, but this time seems a little different. Usually, when we go to Childress, we seem to stay on schedule pretty well. (Meaning, the girls usually sleep as late as they normally do, nap at the appropriate times, and go to bed ABOUT the same time as at home.) Now, I am not an anal schedule-keeper, but the schedule we have works for us. I am willing to vary in and out of the schedule for special times with the family, but this weekend just seemed all out of wack for some weird reason. Naps were taken WAY later than normal, and shorter, and bedtime was WAY later too.

I like my girls schedules for two main reasons...
1.) (the most important reason) Attitudes are much better when a good nap is taken and bedtime is on time. Griping is lessoned, and whining is a little bit less. Plus, cooperation to mommy's instructions is by far better with more rest.
2.) My patience is also better when I've had a little quiet and down time, therefore, I'm a better, more understanding mommy.

Needless to say, I have lacked severely in the patience department for the past couple of days. Today was not much better. I had to take the girls to the dr this afternoon (yes, which again delayed naptime by a couple of hours). Mia has an "almost" ear infection, but mainly just a cough and cold. Eisley has a full ear infection though. (I almost didn't even take her because I thought all her symptoms were just from teething. Whew! Boy was I wrong!) Anyways, once the medicine gets started we will be doing well. (Sidenote...Eisley weighed in once again a pound heavier than two weeks ago. She is now 17 pounds 10 ounces. Yikes! She really needs to slow down now, even though I never thought I'd be saying that!

When we got home, I got the girls down for a nap, started picking up the house, then, I get a call from Jody (girls have been napping for about 45 minutes) saying that he locked his keys in his car. WHAT! I have to wake up the girls from napping, and a quiet house. Oh, don't worry, for about 30 seconds, I did try to reason with myself that it'd be okay to just run and help Jody since he was literally only a minute away. But nope, I made the wise choice, woke the girls up (they were not happy either) and went to rescue Jody. Now, they are both back asleep (which I did NOT think would happen), and I'm hoping that will stay like that, at least just for a couple more minutes.

Anyways, all to say, I really need the Lord's patience right now! I am lacking it severely! I know it is partly to do with the fact that I am still trying to get over my head cold, but I can't blame it on that fully! Oh well, give me a few days, and hopefully we will be all on track again!

A weekend away...

So, its been awhile, I feel, since we have taken a weekend to be with Jody's family in Childress. The Wilsons seem to come to Amarillo several times a month, and we usually see them each time, even if its just quickly over lunch, so I feel like we really do see them often. So, since we had a great weekend ahead of us, and a festive one at that, we decided at the last minute to come to Childress for the weekend. I was very excited to come to Childress for the 4th. In the 7 years Jody and I have been together, I really don't think I've ever spent one here. (even though Jody begs to differ, but I really think he is thinking of some other girl before I came around. Ahem!)

I really love coming to Childress. I love that I love my in laws! Really, and I'm not just saying that because they read this blog daily (hey Randy, Becky, and Amy). But I really do brag on them all the time. They love me as if I was truly born of them. They love on our girls immensely as well! They are such givers. They would do whatever it took to make sure that we were in plenty. I can't even begin to count the amount of times they have bought us groceries (of course, when we really didn't have money to buy them for that week, and the Lord was the only one to tell them that.), or buy us countless meals, or, other random things that we need. (Toilet, water filter when Mia was a baby, etc.) Now, I'm not just saying I love them because they buy us things when I know they could use their money to buy their own necessities. I am truly blessed with amazing family, and I am so thankful that I don't get to join in on horrible "in law stories."

Anyways, all to say, we came to Childress Thursday afternoon, and are going back home Sunday afternoon. Its always filled with great fun, food, and board games until 1pm. (Which I am the Apples to Apples champion two times running! Yes, I am really funny!) We went to the city park yesterday around lunch for the 4th of July booths. It was seriously hot and miserable, so we only walked around for about an hour until we went home. Being that it is a small town, the pyrotechnics guy that usually does the fireworks couldn't come to town for the actual 4th, so we get to have fireworks tonight instead. Just makes the holiday last longer. But we are having a great time, and eating Becky's amazing homemade Butterfinger ice cream. YUM! Well, I guess I better lay down for a minute before the girls wake up from their naps. Sorry that I don't have any pictures. This mom dropped the ball by leaving her camera at home. Oh well, Eisley's first 4th of July, no big deal. (yes, its really a big deal to me!) Happy Independence Day (or weekend!)