Results from 05/20/08

ZERO!!! That is really all I can say. It has been 9 months since my levels first dropped. Only 3 more months of blood being drawn, thank goodness, because it is starting to get painful and I'm just really tired of it! Praise God again for healing my body! So many women who have this have not been blessed like I have been, and have had chemo and continued high levels or re-occuring levels.

Fish

Mali has been saving her money so that she can get a Betta Fish. After a generous donation to the cause by Lori Garcia, and $2 in allowance from Daddy for cleaning her room, we took Mali to purchase her a Betta Fish. She chose a purplish blue fish. She has loved having him. Today she cried because she wanted to go home and see her fish instead of go to the library. So far the fish has lived half a day. Eric has bet that it will die in a week. Mali named the fish something really weird, but it sounded like Sushi so I said "Sushi?" and the name stuck. So "Shushi" (that is how Mali says it) is the fish. Mali really wanted a picture of her and her fish, and was very excited that Sushi was looking at the camera too!:)

Memorial Day Weekend: Camping and going green

This weekend we have been pretty busy although we couldn't leave town. Eric had a Black and Gold scrimmage for spring football on Friday and a Booster Club golf tournament yesterday, so we decided to make the best of our weekend here in Amarillo. Saturday morning, we went down to 6th Street in Amarillo-the original route of Route 66. Neither of us had ever been down there and we just tricked out minds to think that we were on some main street in a tourist town. We had fun eating hamburgers at the Goldenlight (an original Route 66 restaurant) and going into antique stores. After church, Mali and I set up to camp in the backyard. I really wanted to camp this weekend so we did! Mali was SO excited and said her favorite part was sleeping in the tent. Although, I didn't do much sleeping in the tent. Mali woke up literally bright and early at 6:30am Sunday morning. We also made s'mores and Eric toasted our marshmallows for us.
We spent Sunday "going green" and doing our part for the environment I suppose (or saving ourselves money and controlling what we can control in this economic downfall.) We bought all green light bulbs and put them in every fixture in our home and outside our home. Let's hope it makes a difference in our electric bill. We also ordered renaissance windows from Big State Remodeling to have installed to save 40% on our utilities.

Grandmother Deomi

Quilt 1: Unfinished quilt Quilt 2: This was my bedspread for a long time Quilt 3: Just recently given to me by grandma Laverne
This post is a little more open then what I usually post, but it was on my heart and I thought I'd feel better by blogging. My grandmother Deomi died of colon cancer when my dad was 14. I don't know a whole lot about her but have heard some stories from my dad and my Grandma Laverne (my dad's step-mom). According to what I know, she was a godly woman and loved the Lord. I'm so thankful for that heritage! She gave my dad a bible and encouraged him in missions. My Grandma Laverne told me a few stories about her recently and how as she was dying she had her three boys crawl up into bed with her and she taught them how to snap green beans and had them help her prepare vegetables to can so that they would have food when she died. My Grandma Laverne told me that when she moved in after marrying my Grandpa Red, that she had to throw so much away that was still left. I am amazed at my grandmother Deomi's thought of her sons, I'm not sure if I would have acted the same way. I have several of my Grandmother Deomi's quilts that she made. One of them is not finished and I've been working on trying to get it finished (but no one really wants to quilt it in fear that it will harm it). I sat on the floor today holding and looking at these quilts and just began to cry. Okay, so I think I just needed a good cry and this provided the opportunity. I just looked at the different scraps of material and wondered where they came from. Did they come from my dad and uncles old corduroy pants? Or my grandmother's old aprons? One quilt that I've had forever, and even survived the fire, has pink flower backing on it, and this thought is what set the crying off, "did she make this for a granddaughter one day?" Okay, so I'm on the brink of tears again...the reason I wonder this is because two of these are beautiful and very feminine quilts and she had three boys. However, Grandmother Deomi does have five granddaughters and two grandsons and who knows how many great granddaughters will be in her lineage. I feel blessed to have a part of her heritage and legacy in these beautiful quilts that her hands touched and her heart pieced together. Of course, I just had to share pictures too.

if you read this and have comments about Grandma Deomi, please leave them so that I can know more about her!

Seven Years

I just had to add a short little blog about our 7 year anniversary. 7 years really seems so long and I can not believe that 7 years ago we were married right now in Dalhart, TX. It is crazy. I can't even remember our lives without a child!!!! I was talking with a friend today about what we've done each year for our anniversary. So I will try and remember. We used to always re-watch our wedding video, but Eric isn't a big fan of that so we haven't done that in a few years.
6 year- I was on bedrest so it was not a good one really. My mom, Eric, me, and Mali all went to eat at O'Hanna's (Chinese food)
5 year- Eric and I went to the Levelland Sports Banquet. Yippee. Katy and Jeromy babysat (we really miss them as our babysitters, but Katy is on bedrest this year so it wouldn't help to be in Lubbock.). On the way to Levelland, we counted all of the dead prairie dogs on the side of the road. I can't remember how many there really were, a lot, it was weird. We then went to New York City in December as our anniversary gift to each other. Mali went with us.
4 year-Ummm. I can't really remember, Mali was a baby, so we probably had Katy and Jeromy babysit while we went out to eat in between nursing sessions. No photos of this one!:)
3 year-We went to Yellowstone National Park. We drove the whole way, stayed the night at each major hotel there and had a great last outing before baby. I was just a few months pregnant and threw up most of the time, couldn't do any hiking (I was on activity restriction) and generally just didn't eat. Eric had a great time. I remember most eating awesome rack of lamb with jalapeno mint sauce (I WAS pregnant) and Eric reading out loud the last chapter of Payne Stewart's biography and both of us crying.
2 year-Ummm. I don't think I can remember that one either, I might have to pull out the photo albums. After reviewing the photo album, it looks like we went to Dalhart for Jordan and Kisha's prom, and I remember Eric was gone maybe playing golf.
1 year-We ate our nasty cake that was saved from the wedding at some point. Eric went to the Colonial Golf Tournament in Dallas with his dad and dad's friend, Joe.
Honeymoon-We went to Yosemite National park. Our favorite thing was drinking coffee with the windows down in our rental car as we drove into the valley. We stayed at the Wawona and sat in white adirondack chairs on the big lawn each night and just enjoyed the mountains. It was beautiful. Maybe we'll return one day!!
So I guess remembering all but 2 years is pretty good. Actually, Eric and I both forgot about our anniversary this year. I remembered this morning, but we were both very unprepared. I think the flowerbeds, lilac bush, two new trees, and the covered patio are enough celebration for this anniversary.

Video of Mali's recital

Mali did a wonderful job! She is the second girl from the left and in the back row. If that doesn't help you see her, she is the one doing her own dance and kicking up her legs to the side ("like Clara" she informed me. Hint: Clara is from the Nutcracker.) I asked Mali what her favorite part of her recital was and she said "doing this with my leg", which is when she is sticking her leg out to the side.
Okay, so I couldn't get the video to upload on Blogger but I did upload it on Facebook. I hope that everyone can watch it here, if not let me know and I will email you the link.
Mali's Ballet Recital Video

Ballet Recital

So as to not leave any of you in suspense, Mali's dress rehearsal and ballet recital went wonderfully this weekend. She did a great job doing her dance and even went on stage both days. She didn't "ham" it up as much today during her actual recital because she couldn't see her MeeMee and Papa and Daddy in the audience, but she did a great job both days. Mali's Nana and Grandpa and me got to watch her dance on Saturday. Papa, MeeMee and Daddy came to watch Mali dance today while I was a backstage mom helping her class get out on the stage. Mali's class had 15 little girls dancing the Scottish Pooh dance. It was so fun to watch and Eric and I both got teary-eyed watching her dance. We feel so blessed to have her as our daughter and are so proud of her. We even had two compliments from random spectators. One dad said that he and his son LOVED watching Mali dance yesterday and today and laughed so hard at her. Here are some pictures from the weekend! I have been trying to upload the video of her doing her dance and will hopefully be able to post that soon.


Mali with her Grandpa and Nana, Mali and her Papa and MeeMee, Mali and Mommy and Daddy.
For more pictures click here

Clothes

The last week Mali has become very passionate, for lack of a better word, about the clothes that she wears. About a month ago she decided that all she would wear was dresses. So when the weather is cooler and dresses aren't an option, picking out clothes for the day has become very, very difficult. Yesterday she had a huge meltdown because she didn't want to wear a long sleeve dress or a short sleeve dress with a sweater (those were the choices that I gave her). She finally decided on a butterfly sweater that Conja wanted her to wear (On a side note: Conja is a make believe person, she usually pins bad behavior on this made up character who lives in Albuquerque. She doesn't play with a make believe friend, just refers to her, like today she said Conja likes your haircut, or Conja was ugly to her mommy, etc. Her other two "friends" are Concrete and Aleve. Hmmm...this all came about after we did all the work on our landscaping so I guess she heard Concrete and Aleve a few times those weekends.:) Might sound weird, but as a play therapist I think it is perfectly good and healthy that she is expressing her opinion safely through these characters.) So, back to the original post, I couldn't find the right butterfly shirt, but Mali finally found it. We then had to find pants that matched. I pulled out jeans and Mali flipped out (seriously) because they didn't match. I tried to explain to her 3 year old girly mind that jeans match everything. (I'm afraid she may be like her daddy in this area, because I think he's said the same thing to me.) She then wanted "soft" pants. I offered her black pants, again something I believe matches everything. Mali finally picked out soft, pink pants that in my opinion, did not match the purple butterfly shirt with no pink in it! Then came the shoes. She has the cutest casual pink and grey sneaker type shoes from Old Navy that I picked out for her, which of course "don't match". I pointed out the pink on the shoes and the pink in her pants and she agreed to it. SO, today we were just going to Wal-Mart so I gave her the opportunity to pick out her own outfit. She chose a halter type shirt, that is adorable but much more appropriate when it is not 62 degrees, gaucho pink pants, and red sparkly shoes. I asked her if these matched and she very confidently assured me that they do. So, I had to share my story of my high maintenance 3 year old. I love letting her express her personality, on most days at least, but I find the battle of clothes is becoming worse and more frequent. Didn't I just post a statement about her not being an opinionated tween??? I think she is a very opinionated toddler! We love her though. Here is her picture:



Another update on our lives, Eric got a summer job at the Tascosa Country Club mowing greens. Of course he gets free golf too and he loves the course. We are already dreaming of our summer evenings out on the golf course!

Recital weekend is upon us too, so I'm sure I will have tons of pictures and a post after this weekend has commenced. Dress rehearsal tomorrow and recital on Sunday, yeah!

Big Girl Bed

Last night we moved Mali into a big girl bed!! She loves it and loves sleeping in it. I've spent the past few days searching for bedding and finally found what I wanted. I wanted something to match her pink toile accessories that my mom had made for her baby bedding but something that was simple and could grow with her but that was durable and cheap. I finally found something that I think is perfect,although not as cheap as I had hoped for, so I'm hoping that it will last at least until she is an opinionated tween!:) Also on a Mali note, Mali had her first babysitter other than family last night. The surreal thing of it all is that Eric and I babysat her and her brother a few times when her dad was the youth minister in Dalhart, and now she is babysitting MY child! Mali loved playing with a big girl too!

The last house project

This past weekend Eric completed his last house project, for a while at least, with the help of Brandon, Eric's dad and Eric's dad's best friend, Joe. It looks amazing and beautiful and professional. We are really enjoying it. After all the hard work, Eric celebrated his 28th birthday with fajitas (cooked by Rory) and a party on the patio! Here are some pictures of the "project" (we think the real name is pergola).

Blessings of being a mom

I've been blessed a hundred times over since becoming a mom. Being a stay at home mom is one of the tremendous blessings that I receive. I can not imagine anything more wonderful than being able to teach Mali about life and to raise her. I am blessed! And beyond on that, that Eric tolerates and even appreciates me staying at home. I think being out of the home a few hours a week has given me an even deeper appreciation for my 'job'. I am blessed in so many more ways, from the first smile and coos to Mali's sweet words and hugs now. I can imagine the blessings only get deeper! This weekend we went to Lubbock for Katy (my cousin's baby shower, we are thrilled that God is expanding the amount of girls in the "White Family") and we got to visit our other friends and go to nine30. During Sunday school the kids shared with their teachers why "My mom should win the Mother of the Year..." Mali dictated the following to a teacher:
"She gives me gum, candy and toys. She let's me play with make-up. I love my mom because I love her."
I LOVE THIS, it is so sweet and precious, and so Mali. But I do need to clarify that we went and bought make-up for her to wear for pictures and for her recital, etc. She has it in her possession but does not wear it daily. Secondly, I'm not really sure I buy her gum and candy, that award mainly goes to Eric. For example, at Target today she was allowed to get Goldfish or pretzels (those are my kind of snacks). I think Mali actually listed the things she loves, but I'm thankful to be included in the list of gum, candy, toys, and makeup!!

Our Family Picture-March 27, 2008 by Brandon White