Summer Is Over

It's official. Summer is over. Sigh. While I'm really looking forward to a schedule and all that goes with fall, it makes me a little sad to realize that the seasons seem to be slipping by pretty quickly. Eli learned to do a lot of things this summer: swim in a big pool (with his floaties, of course), jump off the diving board, slide down the big slide at the Town Club, ride a bike, spit sunflower seeds. It's amazing what a difference three months will make! Phoebe has grown, too. She's a baby, though, and we expect babies to change monthly...even weekly! As our little Kid University pre-school starts next week, I realize how big Eli really is. He is going to be up in the Pre-K with me where I teach. He's not going to be in my class, though. Thank Goodness! (I really admire people who homeschool...it must take enormous amounts of patience!) All the same, he's going to be one of the "big kids." It seems like just last week he was down in the 1-year-old class giving his teachers heart attacks when he jumped off the top of the little plastic houses. Where has the time gone?! Brad and I are seriously considering holding him back a year from kindergarten (he'll probably start in the fall of '09), but right now that seems just around the corner. School started on Monday here in Texas and it seems like this year I have quite a few close friends who are sending their oldest children off to school. It was heartbreaking! I think there were probably more tears shed at kindergartens around the state than at anywhere else. I think all Moms would like to discover a serum that we could give our children that would keep them little forever. Of course, how would you choose what age to give it them? Would we keep them at 6 months when they are so happy and sweet...or at 1 when they are starting to discover the world around them...or at 2 when they start to tell you they love you and that you are their best friend...or at 3 (hmmm, I can't think of anything for 3 because it was a REALLY tough year for Eli, but you catch my drift). All I know is that time is going by way too quickly for me to impress upon my memory every precious moment in every day. It slips away and all you have left is this big kid where your sweet baby was. I think right this second I should go cuddle with Eli while he watches Sesame Street. I'll just leave you with a few pictures of the last two months.

A Little Honesty...

In our Sunday School Class, we have started a series of lessons on Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now." I have not read it, so as you read this post, please realize that it comes from someone who is mostly ignorant on what the book actually says. I only know of its ideas from other people who have read this book and the series that I mentioned. So, if you think the book is great and whole-heartedly believe it, then you should probably stop reading now. I am in a "hurting place" today and I think most of it is written to make Americans feel okay about themselves and their greed. I have to make this point first, I respect and admire the teachers that are presenting this study in our class. It is because of them that I haven't just thrown up my hands and decided to skip Sunday School for six weeks. I am trying to have an open mind and looking for what God may be telling me through them. In the three weeks since they have started talking about this (I admit, we did miss one week because we were at Family Camp), I spend most of the class trying not to cry and leave feeling incredibly burdened. It's hard to hear people talk about praying for a good parking space, and getting one, when most of your prayers are desperate pleas for God to take away your cancer, to give you a few more years to see your children grow up a little more, to ease the pain of your husband and children and parents if you do die. People who have cancer die of cancer. It may not be tomorrow or next year, but people with cancer do not live to see a ripe old age.I want to believe that God wants to pour out His favor on me, but it is so hard to find the favor when everyday is a struggle to be joyful and hopeful. Sometimes I feel like I am clinging to the edge of hope by my fingers and when I just can't hang on anymore, I'll fall into utter despair. I hold on with everything I have for Brad and Eli and Phoebe. Daily I pray for God to give me His hope, but so often I feel like I have to make myself feel it. Then we go to Sunday School where we hear to "be positive", to "make today the day for your 'someday' statements", "you have to be specific about all your goals so you can make them", and my favorite, "Look for God's favor upon you this week." I got a pretty bad sunburn on Monday at the pool because the Gleevec makes my skin very photosensitive. Monday night, the Gleevec made my back, hips, and legs ache so badly that I had to take prescription pain killer to get to sleep. Yesterday we learned that Phoebe has a hole in her heart that will require surgery when she's two. I cannot claim to know the heart or plans of God, but it was pretty hard to hear. I am just not seeing the "favor." Now most of this sounds very ungrateful. God has blessed us through all this mess. We have been showered with love and prayers. I have an uncle who writes me almost every week, just to say that he and my aunt are praying for me everyday. My side effects to Gleevec are pretty mild...I can mostly function (I say mostly because I have been expereincing some pretty heavy fatigue this last week). Our medical bills are not overwhelming us because Brad has a great new job. There are a hundred blessings, but it's hard to see them through the hurt. I don't feel like we are alone. I don't know anyone who isn't hurting in one way or another. I wonder if all of this "Best Life Now" stuff sounds shrill and hollow to them as well? More than likely, my attitude about the whole thing reveals more about me than about Joel Osteen and his book. But, this is my blog and I can write what I want. :)

If It's Not One Thing, It's Ten Others...

The kids and I are still in Albuquerque. We've been in New Mexico since last Wednesday night. It's kind of a long story (aren't they all?). Our MDX was having a little trouble. It would shake as it shifted from 1st to 2nd gear...we took it to the Honda dealership in Amarillo, they said it was probably the transmission and told us that only an Acura dealership could fix it. The nearest dealership was in
Albuquerque so we decided to take it there. They told us that if we had it in by Thursday morning it could be ready by Monday morning. We were headed to Family Camp at Bluehaven in Las Vegas, NM so we decided to drive it to Alb. They were going to give us a rental and we could spend the night at Brad's parents. We took it on Thursday, they called us Thursday afternoon and said it was fixed. They said it was crack on the engine block. Okay, whatever. We picked it up and driving back out to Brad's parents that night after the steer show (another post, another time), it did the shake thing again. So we took it back in on Friday morning and they said that, in fact, it was the transmission. No big deal except that it meant they couldn't get the part until Monday and it won't be fixed until this afternoon. I drove back to Albuquerque on Sunday while Brad went back to Amarillo with our Children's Minister from church. Hopefully, I'll be back in Amarillo tonight. We'll see. It's been fun for Eli and Phoebe to get to spend a little time with their grandparents. That's why the lapse in blogging.

I'm always a little amazed at what actually makes the news here in Amarillo. (Anybody remember the bees that "terrorized" Pampa for three days?) Here was the news story last night. Every fact in this story is funny.

A 90 year old man and his wife just had a baby boy.


His wife was 50.


He has 21 other children.


He says if he's able, he'd like to have another child next year.


No joking.

We're Baaaackkk...

Supposedly our computer is now healthy. I'm still waiting to see how long it lasts...my hopes aren't that high. I figured I should take the time to update all of the loyal readers who are still checking and reading. Thanks Mom. Not too much is going on here. We had a lovely weekend just kind of sticking around the house and enjoying our little family. We went to some Parade of Homes...by the way, it is so fun! I used to think that Brad and I were weird because we enjoyed looking at other people's homes. Come to find out, lots of people do so they created a Parade of Homes so all of these people could satisfy their curiosity without being weird. It was just a nice laid-back kind of weekend.

Big news on Phoebe: Last night she rolled from front to back! Now comes the time when she'll just start rolling around on the floor. She was practicing her skills last night as I was folding laundry. Her goal was to get to my stack of laundry so she could grab it and pull over a stack of freshly folded laundry onto her head. It made her laugh, but it was a little frustrating for me since I had to refold all the clothes. Of course, her determination and self-satisfied giggles made it all better!

Eli is just Eli.

I'm feeling pretty good. Most days don't have too many side-effects from the Gleevec. The strangest one is that it makes my eyes swell every morning. So, every morning it looks like I've had a bad night, but it goes away after 30 or 45 minutes. Nothing a good cup of coffee won't fix. Some days my liver of spleen seems to ache, but then the next day it will be gone. I'm hanging in there. After looking on some Gleevec/cancer websites, I realize that my side effects are pretty mild. Some people report having to stay in bed all day because of pain or nausea or whatever. I am so thankful that most days I can just live my life and enjoy my family.

I do have a few requests. When our computer crashed the first time, I lost all of my email addresses. The only person I can email right now is ebay. If all of the people who love will email me (it doesn't even have to be very long), I can get your email addresses back and be able to write you when I think about you. My email is jordanjmccall@nts-online.net. Also, since we lost most of our pictures, would you mind going through yours and just saving all the ones of my Brad, me, Eli, Phoebe to a CD and just send them to us. I know we can get a lot of our pictures back that way because we usually make our memories with other people! :) Don't feel like you have to do it today or even this week. Just next time you have a little time. I would be so grateful.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Explanation

Brad here.

Jordan granted me the privilege of posting on "our" blog today from work to explain why we haven't updated it in such a long time. The reason is...........our home computer is once again "dead"! Yep, our fine Dell computer has now gone through two hard drives in the last two plus weeks. So, we are once again waiting for the technican to repair it! On the bright side we are getting our monies worth out of our extended Dell warranty.