August 16, 2010


2010-2011 SCHOOL YEAR
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Alyssa is a FRESHMAN at PHS




Ryan, Maison & Jada-Grace are at
Champ Cooper again this year!!



Ryan is in 4th Grade




Maison is in 3rd Grade



Jada-Grace is in 1st Grade




I pray that all of my children
have a fabulous year!



Where did the time go?

I just recently spent some time with my beautiful Godchild Kristin and she reminded me that I was "slacking" on my blogging! Kristin, who is the QUEEN of blogging IMO, posts something nearly everyday. She is dedicated to her blogging.... I however am not! :) I promise I will try to do a better job Kristin! Is once a week better for you? LOL



So lets update the past two months, shall we?:



JUNE 2010



Me & my long time buddy Jodi Dorsa (Whooten now) reconnected on FB and got to spend time together. She has a daughter, Destini, that is a little older than Alyssa and a son, Karl, that is Maison's age. It has amazed us both how fast our children have become best of friends just like she and I had always been. I am so happy she is back in my life! :))

Maison & Karl

Also, in June.... Alyssa's many 8th Grade Graduation Parties to Attend:
JULY 2010

July brought even more fun to our household!


I decided on the 4th of July, I needed to be a RED HEAD!

My Kids got to enjoy a week of VBS at church with their little brother Rhody.

And the little princess in the family turned 7. We got to celebrate her birthday at Yogi Bear with a great cake, swimming and lots of fun, family & friends thanks to Nanny Missy & Uncle Gene!

June 10, 2010




We are VERY proud of Alyssa. She will be leaving Champ Cooper Jr High and headed to Ponchatoula High School in the fall. Seems like only yesterday she was entering kindergarten and now she is off to high school. Alyssa will go to 9th grade.


Ryan will go to 4th grade, Maison will go to 3rd grade (he maintained a 3.8-4.0 average the whole year) and Jada will be repeating 1st grade; all at Champ Cooper. Over the past 3 years Jada has been in speech therapy and we have seen great improvement there, however; she has been showing signs of the same reading delays that Ryan has. Compound that with her ADHD and it did not make for the most successful school year for her.





May 5, 2010

Another Day of Rambling!



Alyssa was baptized at Bedico Baptist Church on Sunday, April 18, 2010. I am so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming. She is a typical teen most times, but she quite often surprises me with her maturity!




Alyssa with Dustin Lee(Student Minister)




"I baptize you with water,
but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
MAR 1:8



Our Garden is Growing TOO




Those are the good things I have to report I guess.

Work is slow, life is busy and I just go on day by day!

I am a bit depressed lately. Well, I don't know if its actually "depressed", I think its more like "burnt out". I need a vacation sooooo bad. I need a vacation from all the responsibilities I have. It's so overwhelming at times. Most of the time. It seems like everything hits all at once over and over and over and I can't seem to catch a break.

Maison's behavior is just grueling at times and Jada is so whiny and argumentative with everyone at home. I keep telling myself its the ADHD and I am trying to be understanding and supportive of them, but I sometimes wonder. I am constantly trying new techniques to calm them down and I have been making a very conscious effort not to raise my voice to them. I have learned that only makes it all worse, and leaves everyone being upset. But why is Maison so GOOD at school and then gives me total wrath at home? At least Jada is consistent with her terrorizing everyone! Ahhhhhhh, I must crack jokes, to stop from cracking up I guess! I will say though, I have gotten reports from her teacher and/or substitute teachers everyday this week so far and she has had EXCELLENT days all week. Whew! Its so nice to not open that behavior folder and see a bad day!

Alyssa goes for her MRI next Monday, I have an IEP meeting for Ryan on Tuesday, then Alyssa back to the Orthopedic Surgeon the following Monday. Awards Day at school is that week too, Alyssa gets out of school on the 21st and the other kids out of the 26th. Lets not forget the JOB that I am supposed to be at too! LOL Its a never ending merry-go-round. Wonder when I will ever get time to schedule ME a Doctors visit for a check up! I REALLY REALLY need to have a professional tell me that I need to: lose weight, stop smoking, eat better, exercise more, lower my BP and take better care of myself! Oh wait..... why go to the Dr for all of that? I know all that already! Hmmmmm, maybe the dentist! I should definitely have a better visit with a dentist! **Groan**

God brings men into deep waters not to drown them, but to cleanse them. If it feels like you're drowning it might be God reworking your future.

I pray that God gives me a break soon from all this reconstruction he is doing!

April 16, 2010

Spring Is In The Air & Blessings Of Good News




Spring is definately in the air in Ponchatoula. Strawberries are plentiful and we have been enjoying the glorious weather that God has given us these past few weeks. For the first time ever my family has planted a vegetable garden!

Several years ago my mother-in-law wanted to do some square foot gardens with my kids. At that time I had NO IDEA what a "square foot garden" was. But, since it was what she wanted we set out to Lowes to get the materials to build these "gardens". I loved the fact that my kids would have something special that they were going to do with Nanny Charlene because I remembered being in my Paw-Paw Tarver's garden as a child. I remembered shucking corn and field peas with my Maw-Maw Cathey, great-uncle Nick & great-aunt Ella in their garden in Montpelier, LA. It was a FAMILY thing.

Well, three 3x6 beds were assembled at Nanny Charlene's request. Unfortunately, the dirt never made it into them and nothing was ever planted. She got ill and taking care of her health became my priority. So the beds sat there in the yard; right where she wanted them to be planted. They were eventually moved into the back yard and rested on their sides against the storage shed. Nanny Charlene passed away in January 2008. My children never got to have the joys of planting vegetables with her, and will never have the memories (good or bad) that I have of being in the garden with my elders.

BUT.... We will make memories of our own! We have taken those 3 square foot gardens that Nanny wanted and have placed them in a sunny area of the back yard! We have created MORE square foot garden beds and they are all filled with dirt and PLANTED! It was hard work to fill those beds with dirt. Lots of shoveling of garden soil and several weekends were spent before we could plant the first seed. Oh but planting we have done! We have several types of tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, carrots, lettuce, eggplants, green onions, bell peppers, snap beans, and purple hull peas! All in our cute little gridded square foot gardens.




**Two of the 3x6 beds**





**Alyssa working in the yard**




The kids have all helped plant the seeds and water the beds. We were all excited to see the cucumbers sprout so fast. Every time something new starts to sprout and someone notices it, they run to share the news! Lendall and Ryan have taken a liking to working together to check the beds and water them daily and its so nice to see them doing that together.

Speaking of Ryan.....

All of his evaluations for his learning disability have been completed. He has been diagnosed LD (learning disabled) in Reading and will receive Special Education teaching starting next school year. We could very well start it this year, but there are less than 5 weeks of school left, so we are taking the steps now to have everything in place of next year. What a blessing this is! It has been a long hard road to get to this point but, he is finally going to get the help he needs in class.

Maison has had some great improvement with the medication changes. I have seen no current signs of depression and I thank God for that. I was so scared with the way he was acting. Jada is still having issues with her medication and its an ongoing, ever-changing thing with hers.I just try to take things one day at a time with her. Actually, one incident at a time is more like it.

Alyssa seems to have re-aggrivated an old knee injury. It has been doing some pretty good swelling and causing her lost of pain lately. She is scheduled to go to the Dr next week and hopefully we can find out what is going on with it. Unfortunately, and much to her dislike, all tumbling/cheerleading is on hold for now.

She will be attending D-NOW this weekend. D-NOW is a youth discipleship conference that our church student ministry is participating in. There are over 150 students going to D-NOW and I hope it is an amazing and God-filled experience for each of them. She will also be being Baptized at our home church on Sunday, much to my delight! God has blessed me with an amazing daughter, who at times is the "typical teenager" that every parent loathes, but yet she is still amazing!

Lendall's heart seems to be GREAT! At least that is what the Dr's say. We met with his cardiologist on Monday and he reviewed the video of his angiogram he had almost a month ago with a different physician. He confirmed that his heart has NO blockages and only MINOR plaque buildup in a couple of spots. He does have a few vessels that are narrowed with is affecting blood flow, and this could be what is causing the issues he is having. His cardiologist increased one of his medications to the next dosage up and added one more. It was VERY reassuring to know that there no blockages or what looks like will become a blockage anytime soon! Unfortunately, we still dont have all the answers. His cardiologist said we will likely NEVER have all the answers, because they still dont know or understand why his heart acts the way it does sometimes. "Its just one of those list of unknowns we have to live with" is what the cardiologist said.

Our fence project has been a TOTAL success! Flower LOVES it! She runs and runs and runs and by the end of the night has herself purely exhausted. WE DID GOOD! :) The screen porch has been rescreened but we are still working on the trim-work. But for now, we have no mosquitoes trying to "pack us off" when we sit on the front porch in the evenings.

I am still a bit stressed in life, but I dont know that THAT will ever change. Having the garden has helped me to de-stress some. I love that it is bringing our family together on something. Its bringing my husband and I closer together, and that is a Blessing in itself. All of the good news about Ryan and Lendall, and the progress with Maison is stress relieving for sure! Just being able to be MOM and not have to worry about so much "other" stuff is a great thing!

My best friend, who has also started a new garden this year for the first time, asked me the other day: "Are we getting OLD? Seems like we can name a dozen people in their 30's that have decided to start planting vegetable gardens!"

Well Selena..... If this is OLD, we sure are enjoying it arent we!

So my family is making memories together, God is blessing us with stress relieving news and adventures and everyone is overall HEALTHY! What more can a wife and mother ask for right?

March 27, 2010

Where has a year gone?

Yeap. I am probably one of the worst bloggers ever. It's been over a year. Not much changes in a year of my life though.

I am still married to the man I love. I still have 4 kids and I am still stressed. LOL

Alyssa is now 14 and has finished her last year of being a Jr High cheerleader. In just 5 short months she will be a freshman I high school and in 6 months she will be 15.

Ryan is now 10 ( he will be 11 in September ). He still loves football and has another year under his belt. He even did some quarterback time this season. He is now being evaluated for Special Education to determine what his learning disability actually is. Hopefully we will have it worked out completely before next school year. He is doing pretty well in school this year which has been a blessing.

Maison is 8 and will be 9 in 2 months. His grades in school are outstanding. He still has straight A's. He is having bouts of depression now that we feel is being caused by his ADHD medication. He is also having insomnia and has lost alot of weight. Because of all of the negative side effects we have decided to change his medication even though it was really helping his ADHD. Risks outweighing the benefits.

Jada is 6. Still having ALOT of issues with her ADHD. It is affecting every aspect of her life. School, home, behavior, sleep etc. It's been a constant battle and we are continuously working to get it "right". I pray that we can just get her back to the temprament we had on the medication just after she was diagnosed. She has alot of friends though and is very sweet when she is having a "good day".

My husband Lendall has recently been having medical issues. He has been a heart patient for 7 yrs and has a defibulator. Recently he has been having some chest discomfort and was hospitalized. The cardiologist did an angiogram and found no blockages but we have no answers as to what is causing the chest discomfort. This is a very stressful situation for me.

This past year I got my commercial insurance adjusters license. It was crucial for me to get this for my job (which by the way: I love). It's so nice to go to work and do something you enjoy. I continue to be stressed and ran ragged. All that has been going on with Lendall and the kids is really taking it's toll on me. I am constantly exhausted but I just keep going. I know it will catch up with me in the long run. But in the mean time, I press forward.

We are getting ready for the summer at our house. Lots of home improvement projects going on. Which is great since my favorite store is Lowes. lol We have just finished a chain link fence in our front yard. Our dogs, Flower & Mike Jones Stupid, loves it. Flower has so much more room to run now. The next project is the rescreening of our front porch. That starts tomorrow! :)

Well that's all for now.